FOSS Weekly #24.08: Ubuntu 24.04 Features, Arkane Linux, grep, Fedora COSMIC and More
It seems that Fedora is gearing up for more novel variants. Last week, I shared the news about Fedora Atomic spin and now they are considering a COSMIC spin. COSMIC is a new, Rust-based desktop environment by Pop!_OS.
The more, the merrier?
💬 Let’s see what else you get in this edition of FOSS Weekly:
- Arcane Linux brings a unique touch to immutability.
- A neat to-do app that doesn’t get in the way.
- The beginnings of a COSMIC-flavored Fedora spin.
- Features that make Ubuntu 24.04 LTS worth the wait.
- And other Linux news, videos and, of course, memes!
📰 Linux news
- Mozilla has laid off staff to focus more on their core offerings.
- A COSMIC spin of Fedora may soon become a reality if the SIG moves forward.
- Google’s Magika AI-powered file-type identification tool has been made open-source.
- Many resorted to mobbing a developer who just wanted to bridge Mastodon and Bluesky.
- We have been promised a kernel patch that boosts Linux gaming performance by 50%.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is just a few months out. Here are 7 features that make it a contender for the cool distros club.
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🧠 What we’re thinking about
More indie publishers are realizing that Google is favoring big media publications in the search results. And this threatens the existence of independent websites like It’s FOSS.
Bigger publications are using AI generated substandard content on Linux (and other topics) and yet, you’ll get to see them first in the search results. All the more reasons to support your favorite blogs and websites before they are obliterated by the media giants and big tech.
🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials and More
Unlock PDFs on Linux like a pro! Discover the quick steps to remove passwords effortlessly.
The “Grep” command is handy for searching for and matching patterns within text files. Learn how to use it:
I wrote this tutorial more than 9 years ago. Recently, a reader notified in the comments that the steps still work. Arch is indeed a timeless distro 😉
📹 What we are watching
✨ Project highlights
This is an interesting new distro with the ‘immutability’ touch. Apparently, you can even change the base distro (from Arch to Debian). Yet to experiment with the base distro change but the first impressions look nice.
In the market for a minimal to-do app that doesn’t get in the way? Errands might just be the one for you.
🧩 New quiz unit
Like solving crosswords? How about this one?
💡 Quick handy tip
Here’s a quick KDE Plasma tip. If you have a mouse with additional buttons, you can assign buttons for desktop tasks like Application Launcher, Switch Desktop etc.
For this, right-click on the desktop and select “Configure Desktop and Wallpaper”. Now, go into “Mouse Actions”.
Here, click on the “Add Action” button and inside the “Input Here” button, click the additional button on your mouse that you want to use. Now, select the desired action from the dropdown menu and click “Apply”.
🤣 Meme of the week
The wait is always worth it. You can ask one of our FOSSers!
🗓️ Tech Trivia
On February 22, 1997, in Roslin, Scotland, scientists announced that they successfully cloned an adult sheep they named Dolly.
🧑🤝🧑 FOSSverse corner
A FOSSer shares how they ended up with Linux Mint.
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