FOSS Weekly #24.04: Huawei's 'Better Than Linux Kernel', CP/M OS, Firefox as Deb and More

Among other things, look at the design change we introduced.
Warp Terminal

You may not have noticed but there was a little theme redesign that took place this week.

Thanks to the efforts of Thimira, some tutorial series are now organized in 'course format'. Which means you can easily follow all the tutorials in the series by accessing them from the left sidebar. The right sidebar shows the sections on the current page.

New course layout for tutorial series
New course layout for selected tutorial series

There is also an option to move between the next and previous article in the series from the bottom of the article.

At present, NixOS, Rust Coding, Terminal Basics and Bash Scripting series have been converted into the course format.

If you like this new format and find it easier for learning, I'll group more tutorials on a specific topic in the course format.

Please let me know your feedback by replying to this email.

💬 Let's see what else you get in this edition of FOSS Weekly:

  • Two new distro releases.
  • Valve not being happy with Ubuntu's Snap.
  • Google comes clear about Chrome's incognito mode.
  • Blast from the past: CP/M OS
  • Firefox is now available as Deb package
  • And other Linux news, videos and, of course, memes!

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📰 Linux news

  • Valve is not happy with Ubuntu's Snap version of Steam.
  • If you are also not happy with Ubuntu's snap version of Firefox, there is good news for you.
  • MX Linux 23.2 was recently released with updated apps and Linux kernel.
  • Fractal 6 is here with new settings for notifications, and various other improvements.
  • Google has informed users of what using the incognito mode in Chrome really entails.
  • SparkyLinux 2024.01 has debuted with support for PipeWire, installer updates and more.

Huawei has propped up a contender against the Linux kernel, it is called “Harmony kernel” with some pretty big claims.

Huawei Claims They Have Something Better Than The Linux Kernel
Huawei is known for its interesting innovations in smartphone tech. So, it is an intriguing claim.

🌐 Follow us on Google News

By the way, if you use Google, follow It's FOSS on Google News to get trusted It's FOSS content before other websites in Google search.

It’s FOSS - Google News
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🧠 What we’re thinking about

Here's an interesting perspective on the cost of obtaining free software and the author's feelings of guilt.

What if I paid for all my free software?
I’ve always felt guilty by taking for granted the rare breed of virtuous humans that provide free excellent software without relying on advertising. Let’s change that and pay, how much would I “lose” anyway?

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials and More

This terminal tuesday, learn about using scp command.

scp Command Examples in Linux
Use the flexibility of an SSH connection to transfer files with scp command.

Bill takes a look at how CP/M shaped personal computing as we know it today.

CP/M: An Unsung Architect of Micro-Computing
You may have not used CP/M ever but you should definitely know about it if you take interest in the history of computing.

A quick tip on finding the passwords of your old wifi connections.

Find Saved Wi-Fi Passwords in Ubuntu and Other Linux
Here is GUI and command line methods of getting saved wifi passwords in a Linux system.

📹 What we are watching

I interacted with Developer Nation on a podcast about community building. It's a long video, around 45 minutes.


✨ Project highlights

Floorp is a nice Firefox fork that claims to be the most advanced Firefox derivative.

Floorp Browser: Is It The Most Advanced Cross-Platform Firefox Derivative?
Let’s take a look at another interesting Firefox fork, Floorp.

🧩 New quiz unit

This week's quiz is for Firefox lovers

Firefox Trivia Quiz
True Firefox fan? Can you answer all these questions correctly?

💡 Quick handy tip

If you are running multiple terminal windows with different active commands. Then, you can move between windows that are running separate commands by searching for the command name using GNOME shell search.

This works for multiple tabs in one terminal window too, where we can switch between tabs by entering the name of a command that is running in a particular tab.

📋
Active commands are those that are not stopped after execution, but run continuously like top, less, .bashrc, etc.

🤣 Meme of the week

Ah, the beautiful duo!


🗓️ Tech Trivia

On January 24, 1984, Apple launched the first Macintosh computer at an event. Here's a video of the launch. You can listen to the cheers of the attendees.


🧑‍🤝‍🧑 FOSSverse corner

Here's a long-running thread where FOSSers share their desktop setup. You can add yours too!

Post your desktop(s)!
Just wanted to see your setups 🙂 Here is mine, Fedora 33 with GNOME: Another one with neofetch UPDATE: I have decided to use Adwaita theme, because it looks more consistent to me.

❤️ With love

Share it with your Linux-using friends and encourage them to subscribe (hint: it's here).

Share the articles in Linux Subreddits and community forums.

Opt for It's FOSS Plus membership and support us 🙏

Enjoy 2024 with Linux 😄

About the author
Abhishek Prakash

Abhishek Prakash

Created It's FOSS 11 years ago to share my Linux adventures. Have a Master's degree in Engineering and years of IT industry experience. Huge fan of Agatha Christie detective mysteries 🕵️‍♂️

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