Microsoft has released its own version of Coreutils to bring Linux commands to Windows command prompt. If you can’t beat them, join them? This is a big move from the company that once called Linux a “cancer”.
Someone forked Vim to keep it free from any AI assisted code contribution. A bit too extreme? You tell me.
KDE Linux is shaping up well, as May’s progress update shows the project dropping its AUR dependency, switching to kde-builder for a faster and more distro-agnostic build system, and replacing KWalletManager with the newer KeepSecret app.
Valve brought the Steam Deck OLED back after months of absence and quietly raised prices by nearly 50% to cover rising component costs. People bought them anyway. North America sold out overnight, and if you’ve been waiting for prices to normalize, don’t.
M5Stack’s CardputerZero is a credit card-sized Linux computer built around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module Zero, with a 46-key keyboard, 1.9-inch display with HDMI out up to 1080p, 8MP Sony camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and a 1,500mAh battery.
AlmaLinux Day is coming to Los Angeles on July 18, scheduled the day before SIGGRAPH 2026 to catch the VFX and studio crowd before the larger conference kicks off.
More European companies are joining hands to push Euro-Office, the ONLYOFFICE clone.
Here are other highlights of this edition of FOSS Weekly:
- A new tool that feels like a reverse WSL.
- Software that feels open source, but isn’t.
- Getting the fastest Arch Linux download mirrors.
- And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!
🧠 What We’re Thinking About
GitHub Copilot’s metered billing went live this week. What was a predictable monthly subscription is now usage-based, with each request priced dynamically by model and context.
The thing is that you cannot avoid AI specially if you are working as a sysadmin or DevOps. The best way is to use AI as a tool to assist you in your workflow. There is this new book that guides you to build intelligent automation using LLMs, RAG, and AI agents for monitoring, troubleshooting, and system administration. You don’t want to be left behind, after all.
🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings
Your Arch mirror list from install day is probably not your fastest option anymore. reflector lets you pull the most recently synced HTTPS mirrors by country in one command. rate-mirrors benchmarks them and picks the fastest without you needing to specify anything.
Want to try Alpine Linux without touching your main system? The installation process is text-based and a bit different from what most distros do, so running it in VirtualBox first makes sense.
Steam is proprietary. So are Obsidian, Warp, Docker Desktop, and the Snap Store backend. Thirteen tools that regularly fool Linux users into assuming otherwise, with open source alternatives listed.
Desktop Linux is mostly neglected by the industry but loved by the community. For the past 13 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.
If you like what we do and would love to support our work, please become It’s FOSS Plus member. It costs less than the cost of a McDonald Happy Meal a month, and you get an ad-free reading experience with the satisfaction of helping the desktop Linux community.
👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner
ZimaBoard was the device I began my homelab journey with a couple of years ago. I tried their latest device, ZimaCube 2 and shared the experience in this review. If money is not a problem and you are looking for the comfort of owning a homelab, Zima devices are worth it.
Jan AI came close to replacing Ollama for Bhuwan with its one-click model downloads, built-in cloud provider support, and local API server. But performance-wise, it disappointed.
✨ Apps and Projects Highlights
WSL runs Linux inside Windows. Winpodx does the opposite. It spins up a Windows container using Podman and streams individual Windows apps to your Linux desktop via FreeRDP.
📽️ Videos for You
We are now almost halfway through 2026, and these things still hold up.
💡 Quick Handy Tip
In GNOME, if you have multiple keyboard layouts enabled, click on the keyboard layout button in the quick settings panel and click the “Show Keyboard Layout” button to get a quick overview of that layout.
🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse
Can you spot all the hidden logos in this image puzzle?
A glass of Wine to keep the Winslop away. 🍷😉
🗓️ Tech Trivia: On June 5, 1833, Ada Byron met Charles Babbage at a party in London and walked away captivated by his mechanical Difference Engine.
That chance encounter sparked a friendship that led Ada to write what is now recognized as the world’s first computer program, over a decade before the word “computer” referred to anything other than a person doing sums.
🧑🤝🧑 From the Community: Manuel, a regular FOSSer is looking for suggestions for a terminal app that shows git branch history. If that doesn’t interest you, then there’s another thread discussing whether technical education is failing in Australia.
This article first appeared on Read More