Fossery Tech  Feb 1

This week's Linux and FOSS news:

LINUX NEWS

Xfce is getting a brand-new Wayland compositor called xfwl4:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/xfce-is-getting-a-brand-new-wayland-compositor-called-xfwl4/

SonicDE Looks To Preserve & Improve The X11-Specific KDE Code:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/SonicDE-Improving-KDE-X11-Code

COSMIC Desktop ‘Frosted Glass’ UI Effect Previewed:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/01/cosmic-desktop-frosted-glass-effect

GNOME 50 Finally Lands Improved Discrete GPU Detection:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-50-Better-GPU-Detection

GNOME 50 Is No Longer Treating Variable Rate Refresh "VRR" As Experimental:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-50-VRR-Not-Experimental

Add Custom Toggles to GNOME’s Quick Settings with this Extension:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/01/custom-command-toggle-gnome-extension

Tiling Shell 17.3 adds new tiling modes, touchscreen support:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/02/tiling-shell-17-3-gnome-adaptive-snapping-update

KDE Plasma 6.6 Beta 2 Released For Testing:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-Plasma-6.6-Beta-2

Plasma 6.7 Restoring The Air Plasma Theme, Fixes KWin Issue With Intense Alt+Tab'ing:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-Brings-Back-Air-Theme

Budgie 10.10.1 Released With Better Stability & Improved Labwc Integration:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Budgie-10.10.1

Funding, AI and Politics Take Center Stage at FOSDEM 2026:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/01/fosdem-2026-open-source-funding-ai-talks
(The talks sound pretty interesting based on their titles, maybe will look at few of the recordings)

Linux mobile related stands at FOSDEM 2026:
https://linmob.net/fosdem-2026-recommendations/

Phosh Mobile Phone UI Making Progress On GTK4 Port:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Phosh-GTK4-Progress

Open Gaming Collective (OGC) formed to push Linux gaming even further:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/open-gaming-collective-ogc-formed-to-push-linux-gaming-even-further/

CachyOS founder explains why they didn't join the new Open Gaming Collective (OGC):
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/cachyos-founder-explains-why-they-didn-t-join-the-new-open-gaming-collective-ogc/

AerynOS Establishes Policy Against LLM Contributions, 2026.01 ISO Refresh:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/AerynOS-2026.01

Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 3 is available to download:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/01/ubuntu-26-04-snapshot-3-released

DietPi 10.10 drops Debian 11, adds Uptime Kuma & ownCloud Infinite Scale, and more:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/dietpi-10-10-drops-debian-11-adds-uptime-kuma-and-owncloud-infinite-scale-and-more/

Heroic Games Launcher v2.19 released adding ZOOM Platform, AppImage updates and more:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/heroic-games-launcher-v2-19-released-adding-zoom-platform-appimage-updates-and-more/

The simple GOG client for Linux, Minigalaxy version 1.4.1 is out now:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/the-simple-gog-client-for-linux-minigalaxy-version-1-4-1-is-out-now/

(more Linux and FOSS news in comment)

#WeeklyNews #Linux #LinuxNews #FosseryTech

Xfce is getting a brand-new Wayland compositor called xfwl4

The Xfce desktop environment is expanding with plans afoot for a new Wayland compositor called xfwl4.

GamingOnLinux
Show threadFossery Tech  Feb 1

(more Linux news in original post)

Apple M3 Progress On Linux: Asahi Can Boot To KDE Desktop - But No GPU Acceleration Yet:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Apple-M3-Linux-Boot-To-KDE

Mecha Comet – Modular Linux Handheld with Snap-On Modules:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/01/mecha-comet-modular-linux-handheld

Banjo-Kazooie gets a native PC port with Linux / Steam Deck support:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/banjo-kazooie-gets-a-native-pc-port-with-linux-steam-deck-support/

NVIDIA GeForce NOW Is Now Available Natively On Linux In Flatpak Form:
https://www.phoronix.com/review/nvidia-geforce-now-linux

LACT 0.8.4 Brings Improved Overclocking UI For GPUs On Linux:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/LACT-0.8.4-Released

TigerVNC 1.16 Released With "w0vncserver" For Sharing Wayland Desktop Sessions:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/TigerVNC-1.16

GE-Proton 10-29 released with updates to FEX, Wine, DXVK and a few game fixes:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/ge-proton-10-29-released-with-updates-to-fex-wine-dxvk-and-a-few-game-fixes/

Proton Experimental updated to fix the EA app again on SteamOS / Linux:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/proton-experimental-updated-to-fix-the-ea-app-again-on-steamos-linux/

Linux Kernel Continuity Document Added: What Happens If Torvalds' Git Repo Goes Away?:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Kernel-Continuity-Doc

NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.15 Released With A Few Fixes:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-VA-API-Driver-0.0.15

Mesa 25.3.4 released with more bug fixes for open source Linux graphics drivers:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/mesa-25-3-4-released-with-more-bug-fixes-for-open-source-linux-graphics-drivers/

Mesa 26.0-rc2 Released With Numerous AMD, NVIDIA & Intel Driver Fixes:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-26.0-rc2-Released

Open-Source Nova Driver In Linux 7.0 Continues Preparing For NVIDIA Turing GPU Support:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Rust-DRM-For-Linux-7.0

Mesa NVK Driver Temporarily Disabling Support For Larger Pages Due To Bug:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-Disable-NVK-Large-Page

New Intel Linux Driver Workaround Halves Initial Game Load Time For MHW:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Vulkan-DriConf-LTO

Several New X.Org Libraries See 2026 Releases:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/X.Org-Library-Updates-Jan-2026

Systemd Founder Lennart Poettering Announces Amutable Company:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Amutable

AI Code Review Prompts Initiative Making Progress For The Linux Kernel:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/AI-Code-Review-Prompts-Linux

Intel Releases LLM-Scaler-vLLM 1.3 With New LLM Model Support:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-LLM-Scaler-vLLM-1.3

GStreamer 1.28 Released With More Rust Code:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GStreamer-1.28

(FOSS news in comments)

#WeeklyNews #News #Linux #LinuxNews #NVIDIA #Proton #Mesa #AsahiLinux #FosseryTech

Apple M3 Progress On Linux: Asahi Can Boot To KDE Desktop - But No GPU Acceleration Yet

While the Asahi Linux project has made good progress on bringing Linux to Apple Silicon hardware, much of the success and in turn upstreaming to the Linux kernel has been around the aging M1 and M2 Macs

Show threadFossery Tech  

(Linux news in previous posts)

FOSS NEWS

State of Mozilla report outlines an alternative vision for AI:
https://betanews.com/article/state-of-mozilla-report-outlines-an-alternative-vision-for-ai/

Brave browser adds option to block YouTube Playables in settings:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/brave-browser-adds-option-to-block-youtube-playables-in-settings/
(I play da YouTube game. I "pirate" stuff with FreeTube and yt-dlp, use VPN when I get IP block, use Invidious when FreeTube and yt-dlp break. Also have an Android-x86 VM just to have NewPipe as a fallback. Now that's the game.)
(Actually someone should make a YouTube Piracy Simulator game where the player can collect score by watching or downloading videos using 3rd party tools (could work similarly like those simple mobile games where players need to tap on resources to collect them). The enemy is YouTube, final boss is DRM lmao)

Signal now lets users pin messages in one-on-one and group chats, with time limits:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/signal-now-lets-users-pin-messages-in-one-on-one-and-group-chats-with-time-limits/

Proton Drive SDK update: faster, more reliable file operations:
https://proton.me/blog/drive-sdk-january-2026

Bitwarden enhances Premium and Families plans with more security features & raises prices:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/bitwarden-enhances-premium-and-families-plans-with-more-security-features-and-raises-prices/

Transmission 4.1.0 Released with Big Updates:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/01/transmission-4-1-0-released

Notesnook 3.3.8 brings note expiration, CSV import/export, and improved customization:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/notesnook-3-3-8-brings-note-expiration-csv-import-export-and-improved-customization/

Shotcut Video Editor Now Using Hardware Decoding By Default Except For NVIDIA On Linux:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Shotcut-26.1-Video-Editor

Calibre 9.0 adds new bookshelf view, instant editing, Linux scrolling upgrades, and more:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/calibre-9-0-adds-new-bookshelf-view-instant-editing-linux-scrolling-upgrades-and-more/

F-Droid Basic 2.0 alpha debuts with rewritten UI, better search and improved app discovery:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/f-droid-basic-2-0-alpha-debuts-with-rewritten-ui-better-search-and-improved-app-discovery/

STAR WARS Battlefront II private server and mod launcher KYBER goes open source:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/star-wars-battlefront-ii-private-server-and-mod-launcher-kyber-goes-open-source/

Linuxulator-Steam-Utils To Enjoy Steam Play Gaming On FreeBSD & Other Options:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeBSD-Gaming-2026

(more FOSS news in comments)

#WeeklyNews #OpenSource #FOSSNews #Mozilla #Brave #Signal #Proton #ProtonDrive #Bitwarden #Transmission #Notesnook #Shotcut #Calibre #FDroid #StarWarsBattlefront #Kyber #Linuxulator #FreeBSD #FosseryTech

State of Mozilla report outlines an alternative vision for AI

Mozilla has published its latest State of Mozilla report alongside a film campaign that calls for a different approach to how AI is developed and governed.

BetaNews
Feb 1 at 9:01amWeb
Show threadFossery Tech  Feb 1

(more Linux and FOSS news in previous posts of thread)

ACP Registry debuts in Zed Editor with built-in IDE support:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/acp-registry-debuts-in-zed-editor-with-built-in-ide-support/

GNU C Library Moving From Sourceware To Linux Foundation Hosted CTI:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-C-Library-To-CTI-LF

Ollama debuts 'ollama launch' to run coding tools with local or cloud models:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/ollama-debuts-ollama-launch-to-run-coding-tools-with-local-or-cloud-models/

Immich 2.5 adds space-saving option, non-destructive image editing, UI upgrades, and more:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/immich-2-5-adds-space-saving-option-non-destructive-image-editing-ui-upgrades-and-more/

GNU gettext Reaches Version 1.0 After 30+ Years In Development - Adds LLM Features:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-gettext-1.0

Electronic Frontier Foundation calls for stronger privacy with Encrypt It Already campaign:
https://betanews.com/article/electronic-frontier-foundation-calls-for-stronger-privacy-with-encrypt-it-already-campaign/

The free and open source Godot Engine 4.6 is out now with major upgrades:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/the-free-and-open-source-godot-engine-4-6-is-out-now-with-major-upgrades/

Netflix Animation Studios are now funding Blender development:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/netflix-animation-studios-are-now-funding-blender-development/

Vulkan 1.4.342 Published With Cooperative Matrix Conversion Extension:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Vulkan-1.4.342-Released

Pandas 3.0 debuts str dtype and Copy-on-Write for dataframes:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/pandas-3-0-debuts-str-dtype-and-copy-on-write-for-dataframes/

Jan v3 model debuts, with updates to Jan Desktop v0.7.6:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/jan-v3-model-debuts-with-updates-to-jan-desktop-v0-7-6/

The viral AI agent Clawdbot rebrands a third time, and now has a social network for bots:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/the-viral-ai-agent-clawdbot-rebrands-a-third-time-and-now-has-a-social-network-for-bots/

OPNsense 26.1 enhances security, network visibility, automation, and threat intelligence:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/1/opnsense-26-1-enhances-security-network-visibility-automation-and-threat-intelligence/

#WeeklyNews #OpenSource #FOSSNews #FOSS #Zed #ZedEditor #ACP #GNUCLibrary #Ollama #Immich #GNUgettext #GodotEngine #Godot #Vulkan #Pandas #Jan #Clawdbot #Moltbot #OpenClaw #OPNsense #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Programming #Python #Coding #Development #Dev #GameDev #GameDevelopment #IDE #FosseryTech

ACP Registry debuts in Zed Editor with built-in IDE support

Zed Editor introduces the ACP Registry, providing instant agent registration and updates across ACP-compatible clients. Built-in support extends to JetBrains IDEs.

AlternativeTo