Something else probably no-one other than me will never need to know: the #DebianLibre live DVD/USB system, while it runs a kernel without proprietary blobs within the live environment itself, installs a kernel *with* proprietary blobs to the hard drive when you run the installer. If you want a #LinuxLibre kernel on the eventual installed system, you have to do some manual fiddling with the apt configuration.

This week's Linux and FOSS news:

LINUX NEWS

GNOME Mutter 50 Alpha Released With X11 Backend Removed:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-Mutter-Shell-50-Alpha

GNOME 50 Will Make Sure You Don't Use Your Computer Past Your Bedtime:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-50-Screen-Lock-Bedtime

KDE Plasma 6.6 Beta Released With Plasma Login Manager, Plasma Setup:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-Plasma-6.6-Beta

Budgie 11 Desktop Being Developed With The Qt6 Toolkit:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Budgie-11-Using-Qt6

Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena” released!:
https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4981

EndeavourOS Linux gets an upgraded release with Ganymede Neo:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/endeavouros-linux-gets-an-upgraded-release-with-ganymede-neo/

Tails 7.4 adds new language-saving feature, drops BitTorrent, updates core apps, and more:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/tails-7-4-adds-new-language-saving-feature-drops-bittorrent-updates-core-apps-and-more/

Debian Libre Live 13.3 Images Released For Avoiding Non-Free Firmware:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Debian-Libre-Live-13.3

GYESME: A New Design-Led Downstream Of GNOME Being Explored:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GYESME-GNOME-Downstream
(Interesting project, I like the concept to make GNOME more flexible while keeping the overall user experience. I don't really get why GNOME wants to tie itself to Systemd. Also, supporting ather design systems like the KDE/Qt ecosystem would be nice (if they mean that), I face theming issues all the time with programs written for KDE, which make some programs unusable for me, while other than the theming, they would be great for my use case. I'm curious whether this project will shape up as an actual, daily drivable desktop in the future.)
(I don't really get what they mean about "Defaults are protected more aggressively than options." though. It sounds like they want to limit customization, while in the rest of the description, they emphasize flexibility. 🤔 Or maybe I'm just interpreting it in the wrong way.)
(But other than that I like their mindset of listening to feedback, adapting direction accordingly.)

(more Linux and FOSS news in comment)

#WeeklyNews #News #Linux #LinuxNews #GNOME #KDE #LinuxMint #EndeavourOS #Tails #DebianLibre #Budgie #GYESME #GNOME50 #KDEPlasma #TailsOS #LinuxDistro #DistroRelease #DesktopEnvironment #LinuxDesktop #DesktopLinux #FosseryTech

GNOME Mutter 50 Alpha Released With X11 Backend Removed

In preparing for the GNOME 50 Alpha release, the '50.alpha' tags just occurred for the Mutter compositor and GNOME Shell