Right now, California's Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) is all the rage right now, which targets not only websites and apps but also operating systems. Come January 1, 2027, every OS provider must collect a user's age at account setup and provide that data to app developers via a real-time API.

Colorado is also working on a near-identical bill, which we covered earlier.

The EFF's year-end review put it more bluntly: 2025 was "the year states chose surveillance over safety." The foundation's concern, which I concur with, is, where does this stop? Self-reported birthday today, government ID tomorrow? There appears to be no limit to these laws' overreach.

Governments across the world are pulling out the exact same argument (protect the children) to push through laws with consequences that go well beyond keeping a kid off a harmful website. All while attendees of a certain island roam about the world freely.

It's Not Just the U.S.

The UK moved first back in 2023. The Online Safety Act's child safety duties went into force in July 2025, where it required platforms to deploy age verification measures, blocking minors from accessing harmful material.

Australia followed in December 2025 with a ban on social media accounts for under-16s, requiring age checks for adults to use the platform. It is narrower in scope, targeting platforms rather than app stores or operating systems.

Brazil has gone further. The Digital Statute of the Child and Adolescent comes into effect on March 17, 2026, and it explicitly names operating systems and app stores by definition.

Article 12 requires both to implement auditable age verification, expose an age signal via API to third-party apps, and get parental/legal guardian consent before minors can download anything.

Singapore's approach skips the OS side of things and goes straight for the app stores themselves. Their IMDA requires the likes of Apple, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, and Samsung to implement age assurance by March 31, 2026.

Apple has already gotten it done, rolling out its Declared Age Range API on February 24, blocking 18+ apps in Singapore, Australia, and Brazil.

As usual, the EU is doing its own thing. In October 2025, the Commission introduced the second version of its age verification blueprint, which is a mobile app that lets users prove they're over 18 without revealing any personal data. It's built on the same technical foundation as the EU Digital Identity Wallets rolling out across member states.

Five countries are already in the process of customizing it for their needs: Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain.

The Fallout

Predictably, the Linux community has not taken this quietly. While there is a bunch of misinformation strewn about, some things are clear.

Take Ubuntu, for instance. Aaron Rainbolt, an Ubuntu Community Council member, posted on the Ubuntu mailing list raising this issue of age checks with a post titled:

On the unfortunate need for an "age verification" API for legal compliance reasons in some U.S. states

In the post, he proposed a D-Bus interface called org.freedesktop.AgeVerification1. Rather than storing raw personal data, it would only expose an age bracket to apps that request it. The goal is a spec loose enough that any distro can implement it however they see fit, while still satisfying what laws like AB 1043 actually require.

Then there's the thread up on Fedora's Discourse, where a user asked whether the developers were aware of California's age verification law. Jef Spaleta, Fedora Project Leader, chimed in with a measured approach, where no telemetry was required, and a local API would do the heavy lifting.

Here, apps would query Fedora for an age bracket, and the OS would provide it. He even suggested it could be as simple as a new file in /etc/ that would be populated during account creation.

As for what people think of this, take the example of a Redditor, who is going as far as hoarding ISO files for old builds of Linux and Windows once age verification-equipped versions start rolling out. I am sure many will follow in their footsteps.

Lastly, my take on this situation? This feels less like coincidence and more like a coordinated move being run under the guise of protecting children's rights. We already know how certain regimes around the world treat those rights.

As governments push age checks deeper into apps and operating systems, what once sounded like a safety measure is starting to feel a lot like surveillance.

And it’s not just happening in the U.S. Reports suggest Brazil is also moving toward similar regulations. While this model may fit ecosystems like Apple and Microsoft, where operating systems are tightly tied to online accounts, the Linux world works very differently. Yet developers from projects like Fedora and Ubuntu are already discussing how such requirements might affect Linux.

We’ll be keeping close eye on how this evolves. Stay tuned.

Here are other highlights of this edition of FOSS Weekly:

• Longer support for certain Linux kernels.
• systemd troubleshooting tools
• Xfce customization.
• Microsoft hates Microslop.
• LibreOffice quick tip.
• A new consortium to unify the Arm software ecosystem.
• And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!

📰 Linux and Open Source News

The web's most popular UI library has outgrown Meta's ownership. React is now part of the Linux Foundation with neutral governance and eight platinum members on board. Technical decisions are independent from the board, of course.

Arm software got too complex for any one company to handle alone. CoreCollective just launched to fix that fragmentation problem. Free membership for anyone building on Arm. AMD, Google, Microsoft and Red Hat are already in.

LTS kernel support windows just got extended after being cut to two years back in 2023. Linux 6.6 and 6.12 now get four-years of support instead. Greg Kroah-Hartman updated the schedule after discussions with companies and maintainers.

AI's RAM appetite just killed another hardware project. Orange Pi and Manjaro spent two years building a Linux gaming handheld, cleared regulatory approvals, and got everything ready to ship. Now it's sitting on ice because DDR5 chip prices are absurd.

Motorola just partnered with the GrapheneOS Foundation, and it was announced at MWC 2026. The two plan to collaborate on research, software improvements, and new security features in the coming months. If you did not know already, Graphene is an Android distribution that ditches Google's data collection layer entirely and has long been the go-to for anyone serious about privacy.

And a funny thing happened this week when Microsoft locked down its Discord server because people kept on calling it Microslop.

🧠 What We’re Thinking About

Few Linux distributions attract as much criticism as Ubuntu. From Snap complaints to Canonical decisions, the internet seems to have a long list of reasons to dislike it. But Ubuntu may not deserve nearly as much hate as it gets.

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings

When stuff breaks on Linux, systemd already knows what happened. Systemctl shows which services crashed, journalctl has the error messages, and systemd-analyze tells you what's hogging boot time. Coredumpctl keeps snapshots of apps that died completely.

Got an old PC or Raspberry Pi collecting dust? Batocera, Lakka, and RetroPie turn them into plug-and-play retro consoles via USB or SD card.

A quick tip if you love to use LibreOffice. If a document has way too many images and you have to save multiple or all images from it, save it as an HTML document in a new folder. You'll get all the images from the document. Pretty neat 😄

By the way, we are working on a "Linux Mint Starter Pack" series for beginners. I'll share with you when it is done. In the mean time, you can get familiar with the Linux command line.

👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner

Tired of feeding your photos to Google's AI? PhotoPrism runs locally on Docker, handles face recognition and tagging on your hardware.

✨ Apps and Projects Highlights

A Czech-based dev built a data center sim where you rack servers and run cables. No native Linux support but works with some FPS issues

📽️ Videos for You

Xfce can be customized to look (more) beautiful. This video shows how:

💡 Quick Handy Tip

Brave browser allows you to set a shortcut to copy the URL of the current tab. For this, go to Brave Settings -> System -> Shortcuts. Here, search for Copy URL and add a keybind to it.

In the screenshot above, CTRL+SHIFT+C is added as the shortcut. This overwrites the default inspect function, which it was mapped to earlier. So tread with caution and try to add a non-conflicting shortcut.

If your browser does not support this, you can use CTRL+L to access the address bar and then CTRL+C to copy the URL of the current tab.

📚 Don't Miss! Linux eBook bundle

Humble Bundle has brought back the "Linux for Seasoned Admins" ebook bundle offer (partner link). From the classic Linux Pocket Guide and my favorite, Efficient Linux at the Command Line, the bundle also has ebooks on Docker, Ansible, Kubernetes and other devops aspects of Linux.

And your purchase also supports the Code for America initiative.

🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse

Can you beat this crossword and become the Daemon Hunter?

🤣 Meme of the Week: The pain is real. 🥲

🗓️ Tech Trivia: On March 1, 1960, the first LISP Programmer's Manual was released by John McCarthy's group at MIT. McCarthy had built a recursive, symbolic language that would go on to become the foundation of AI programming and outlast nearly every other high-level language of its era.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From the Community: FOSSers are talking about the upcoming secure boot changes, and how it might affect those on Linux.

EA recently put up a listing for a Senior Anti-Cheat Engineer, ARM64, looking for someone to join its SPEAR (Secure Product Engineering & Anti-Cheat Response) team. The role is focused on expanding their in-house kernel-level anti-cheat solution, EA Javelin, to run natively in Windows on ARM64.

The person will be responsible for developing a native ARM64 driver for Javelin and porting the existing solution over from x86_64. Building and maintaining automated test pipelines to validate the anti-cheat on ARM hardware is also part of the job.

This makes sense given where the Windows handheld market is heading. ARM-based Windows devices are a growing segment, and as more players game on them, security solutions need to adapt.

Where's Linux, you ask? Look at the bottom of the responsibility requirements, and you will see the following:

Chart a path for EA Javelin Anticheat to support additional OS and hardware in the future, such as Linux and Proton.

That one line is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It points to EA at least thinking about bringing Javelin to the Linux kernel and to Proton. It is clearly a long-term goal rather than an immediate one, as Windows on ARM64 is still numero uno.

Linux needs no introduction, but if you were thinking what the heck is Proton. It is a compatibility layer developed by Valve, built on top of Wine, that allows Linux users to run Windows games without needing a Winslop install.

The Steam Deck, Valve's popular Linux-based handheld, relies heavily on it to run the vast majority of its game library. And when you look further, without Proton, many of the games playable on Steam Deck simply would not work on Linux.

Things Are Looking Up?

Linux as a gaming platform has been gaining traction. The Steam Deck put it in the hands of a much wider audience, and the broader desktop Linux community has kept that momentum going.

The track record from big publishers, however, has not been great. EA itself pulled Linux and Steam Deck support for Apex Legends in late 2024, arguing that the open nature of Linux made it harder to keep cheaters out. Rockstar followed a similar path, with GTA V Online quietly kicking Linux users after rolling out BattlEye.

Going back more, Roblox joined the club in 2023, when its Hyperion anti-cheat blocked Wine entirely, ending years of unofficial Linux support. But Linux gaming keeps growing regardless, and game publishers who want a slice of that market will have to take note.

Then there's Sony, which seems to be going backwards, pulling back from the PC gaming market (paywalled, grr) for its flagship single-player titles. Anonymous spokespersons from the company have disclosed that titles like Ghost of Yōtei and Saros will only be available on the PlayStation 5 series of consoles.

It is a strange time. One major publisher is quietly hinting at Linux support in a job listing, while another is seemingly retreating from PC. For Linux gamers, the situation remains mixed, but at least someone is headed in the right direction.

💬 Your thoughts? Is EA serious about Linux support, or is it just not that important to them?

Suggested Read 📖: AI's RAM Hunger Finds a New Victim in the Orange Pi Neo Linux Handheld

Whether it’s jokes about Snap packages or criticism of Canonical’s decisions, mocking Ubuntu often feels like the default attitude in parts of the Linux community.

To be fair, Canonical has made decisions over the years that have not always been well received, and some of the criticisms of Ubuntu and the direction it’s taken have their own merit. Yet, the derisive way Ubuntu is often talked about online isn’t particularly fair and, frankly, misses the point.

Ubuntu didn’t become the “face of Linux” by accident, nor did it gain its popularity and mass appeal (both on the desktop and servers) without real, solid reasons behind it. For many, it is in fact these same reasons that cause them to feel so passionately about the shift in direction since the early days.

Ubuntu’s speciality: Linux for Human Beings

Ubuntu was once widely seen as the easiest Linux distro for beginners and a solid choice for both casual and “power” users alike. Many Linux enthusiasts (myself included) recommended it without hesitation because it was straightforward and opinionated in a way that just felt sensible for regular people. From the time you popped in a live CD, you got a sane, uncomplicated experience that felt like a breath of fresh air compared to Windows, and it made you feel like Linux could actually feel like home. All you had to do was install it, update it when necessary, and get on with your life.

The slogan “Linux for human beings” was more than a branding choice. Ubuntu embodied this motto in a very real way by reducing friction for everyday people and never being afraid to match form to function. It hasn’t always lived up to that purpose in ways that everyone agreed with, but the underlying mission has never truly changed, if we’re being fair.

Even with the shift towards a more developer-focused ecosystem, it has remained just as easy to download, install, learn the ropes (if you’re new) and get on with your life. Drivers are still a breeze to set up for most hardware. The default themes are still designed with a polished aesthetic taste in mind, and yes, installing apps easily and swiftly is still a major feature. Whether you’re deep in DevOps or a casual desktop user who wants a stable system that doesn’t demand constant babysitting, Ubuntu remains one of the most practical choices in the Linux world. In other words, the memes and tropes are loud and often funny, but reality still begs to differ because Ubuntu still delivers.

So why all the hate? What happened to our once beloved flagship among Linux distros?

From darling to punching bag (and why that happened)

In order to understand why Ubuntu has been falling from its place of overwhelming popularity among Linux users, it’s important to remember that Ubuntu was not just a community effort, as is the case with many other distros. Ubuntu is both a community effort and a product of Canonical, and it’s actually the latter first. While the community has some say in what happens through feedback, bug reports, feature requests, and other standard open-source infrastructure, Canonical ultimately makes the call for what defines Ubuntu as a whole.

Like any company, Canonical makes decisions based on factors that aren’t always known or agreed with by the broader public. While many of these decisions have ultimately worked out well, just about as many have also proven not to work out in the long run. This fluctuation between success and well, failure, is a natural part of the product lifecycle for any long-running product.

Ubuntu is no exception to this rule.

However, from the perspective of the community, many of these decisions started steering Ubuntu in directions that many users found puzzling and, at times, concerning. The backlash didn’t come suddenly, nor did it stem from a single decision. It came from a notable pattern: Ubuntu choosing its own path, even when the broader Linux community preferred a different direction. While this isn’t inherently “bad”, it’s unfortunately created friction within the community. To be fair, some of these decisions, such as introducing Amazon affiliate links during the Unity era, or the decision to keep the Snap Store closed on the backend, haven’t followed the expected ethos of the Linux/open-source world.

Furthermore, with the Linux desktop constantly fighting the challenges of “fragmentation”, the decisions to use snaps over Flatpaks for a containerised solution, AppArmor over SELinux, etc, have brought on accusations of ‘NIH’ (Not Invented Here) syndrome. Unfortunately, while Canonical has reversed course on some of its more controversial choices and attempted to show goodwill and engage more collaboratively, the reputation and distrust are unfortunately hard to shake. Yet, in spite of these difficulties, Ubuntu itself has largely settled into a steady state, even becoming, in the eyes of some, “boringly stable”.

But whether or not this accusation is fair, it’s a sign that Ubuntu is largely doing its job. A boring desktop is often a reliable desktop, and for most people, especially people trying to work, play, study, or just have a functional computer, reliability beats novelty any day.

Taking a path less travelled, and yet…

Ubuntu is often criticised for “driving in its own lane”, but that independence is also why it has remained so relevant and popular. Many of the distros that have taken its crown in the ranks of popularity and ease of use are still Ubuntu derivatives. Even if they look different on the surface, or choose not to include technologies that have become synonymous with Ubuntu, they’re still Ubuntu at heart (like snaps).

This isn’t a mistake. Ubuntu is a solid base for the likes of Mint, Zorin, AnduinOS, and others because it’s stable, widely supported, and consistent, even while Canonical is willing to take the heat for making strong platform decisions.

Like any other distro, Ubuntu is a reflection of choices and decisions, whether those are made by the community, upstream maintainers, or the entity curating and tying everything together. It represents the collective work of everyone who contributes, packages, and builds. As such, it’s not just “another Canonical product”, even if the influence of a product mindset is evident. That combination of open-source philosophy and community culture, alongside the stability and direction of a commercially stewarded platform, is what makes Ubuntu unique.

Ubuntu’s mission is simple: ship something cohesive, make it consistent, and keep it well supported over time. Sure, it’s not always going to please everyone, especially those of us who would prefer a more decentralised decision-making process or more community consensus. But if we’re being honest, it’s also why we so often assume Ubuntu when we’re writing tutorials and install instructions.

That’s no accident, either. Ubuntu may not be perfect (no distro is), but it makes enough of the right choices to remain a dependable foundation, not only for users, but for an entire ecosystem built on top of it.

More than a desktop OS

Ubuntu and its ecosystem are often easy to reduce to the realm of “beginner distro,” but that view is outdated, and I’d even argue it’s never really been true. Granted, I personally started using Ubuntu because I wanted to see what the hype was about where the likes of Compiz, Beryl, and other flashy effects were concerned. Yet, I never even got to try any of the whiz-bang features until I was a few years into my Linux experience, due to hardware limitations. So what kept me here? It was recognising that Ubuntu is so much more than a desktop.

Ubuntu is a serious platform across the server space, cloud platforms, and embedded environments and infotainment, and even lives on in the mobile space due to the efforts of UBPorts. Personally, I’ve never run a VPS on any other distro, not because I couldn’t, but because I haven’t found any reason to choose another. Ubuntu just works, and when your mission is to keep servers reliably online and updated for yourself and clients, that’s exactly what you need it to do.

Ironically, many of the same reasons Ubuntu gets flack on the desktop are the reasons it’s preferred in development and server spaces today. For instance, using a snap to install and configure a web service like Nextcloud is far simpler than even using a more well-known solution like Docker. Some snaps don’t even require any further configuration beyond setting up basic admin credentials and settings through web-based UI.

Ubuntu’s LTS cadence is a lifeline for server stability. Once you’ve successfully deployed a complex server environment, it’s often preferable to keep it “as is” for as long as humanly possible, while still getting the necessary security upgrades and minimal feature changes that you need to keep it up to date. With a Ubuntu LTS, that kind of stability isn’t even a challenge to solve, because there again, it just works. You get the flexibility and familiarity of a Debian-based system, with the freshness and stability that Ubuntu brings to the table.

Another important point is that a lot of production environments, containers, tutorials, and automation examples are written with Ubuntu (or Ubuntu-like) systems in mind. By matching what’s common in the field, you spend less time fighting your environment and more time understanding and using the tools you need to get actual work done.

Giving Snaps a fair shake

While “just getting work done” is one of Ubuntu’s hallmarks, that’s not typically what people think of when they think of snaps, and let’s be honest: snaps are a big part of why Ubuntu gets mocked. This criticism isn’t completely imaginary either. While the tech has come a long way, snaps still have some real-world challenges. But, the same can be said for just about any containerised packaging system. For the sake of fairness, let’s just get some of the remaining issues out of the way.

Theming inconsistencies still persist, especially if you are using an app built with a toolkit that your desktop isn’t built on. Snaps still take significantly more storage space than “native” packages, because they often depend on other “foundational” snaps. Also, there’s no open or decentralised software store, so we have to trust Canonical’s stewardship. These are real trade-offs, and it’s only fair to acknowledge them.

Usually, the discourse stops right here, as if “Snaps exist” is the same thing as “Ubuntu is unusable.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen someone say “First thing I do is remove snap from the system”, I could end world hunger overnight. Yet, realistically, most people don’t choose an OS to make a statement about packaging decisions. They just want to be able to install what they need, do it quickly, keep it updated, and avoid breaking things in the process. Whether some in the community like them or not, snaps deliver on this promise.

By providing a consistent delivery mechanism for newer app releases, a simple rollback method and a clean way to clear app settings and data once an app is removed, snaps reduce dependency stress across different Ubuntu releases. For most types of software they simplify maintenance for developers and users alike. Plus, many of the issues that led to snaps being so heavily disparaged, such as slow startup times and terrible desktop integration, have been massively improved since their introduction, and continue to be improved with time.

Besides, even if you absolutely detest snap as a technology, Ubuntu is still flexible enough that you can make your own choices about where you get your apps and what package distribution formats you prefer. Case in point: most of the apps I use on my Ubuntu system today are Flatpaks and native applications, not because I don’t use snaps (I actually use quite a few), but just because that’s how most of the latest versions of the apps I need are currently packaged.

Why you can safely ignore the noise

Many of the arguments against Ubuntu these days are essentially identity- or philosophy- based, not practical positions. For most people, a better question is simply: what do you need your computer to do?

Ubuntu is still a strong choice if you’re new to Linux and want something straightforward, different from Windows and macOS, but familiar enough to not be a complete shock to the system. If you’re a developer seeking the friendly environment of a Linux-based workflow, choosing Ubuntu means you’ll have a system that matches the majority of guides and tutorials you’ll encounter online. The same is true if you work in DevOps or system administration.

The point is, whether you’re a casual desktop user or a seasoned denizen of SSH terminals, Ubuntu still meets the mark, offering stability, broad app availability, and the ability to Google a problem and find answers quickly.

Why it’s never going to be for everyone

It goes without saying, but Ubuntu can’t be everyone’s cup of tea either, and even some long-time users might find it no longer fits their needs. For instance, if you prefer ultra-minimal systems that let you build everything your own way, or even if you just want to avoid Canonical’s decisions on principle, Ubuntu won’t fit the bill, and that’s perfectly okay.

With the move to deliver more core components as snaps, it’s also understandable that some of us might be forced to choose other distros to avoid this fundamental change in direction.

What really matters here is that none of this is a matter of a moral judgement, though I’m sure some folks would argue otherwise (and hey, I respect it, even if I disagree). At the end of the day, it’s all about freedom and finding the matching tools to get the job done, whatever that means for you.

Final thoughts

Long story short, Ubuntu often gets the most backlash because it’s one of the most visible and durable targets. It’s a distro many of us have long outgrown, but it’s also the distro where we “cut our teeth” on everything Linux has to offer. It’s no surprise then, that it’s the distro many people now love to dunk on and poke fun at.

Love it or hate it though, Ubuntu remains. It’s still quietly doing what many people actually need, still serving its age-old role as many folk’s first foray into Linux, still pushing innovation and momentum across spaces where we need it most, and still helping the collective to gain market share. The work Ubuntu does behind the scenes may not always be exciting, but no doubt, it’s quite invaluable. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and sure, it would be nice to see it reclaim its former glory, even just for a bit of nostalgia.

But Ubuntu has earned its place among the Linux giants, and continues to prove itself every day. So maybe, just maybe, it doesn’t deserve our hate.

The term caught on as frustration grew over Microsoft's push to integrate AI into their most popular products like Windows, Office, and GitHub. Many people now feel that user experience is being traded for bloat, breach of privacy, and instability in the name of Copilot.

Abhijith M B from Windows Latest was the first to catch that the word had been quietly added to the server's auto-moderation blocklist. Any message containing it was silently blocked, with only the sender receiving a notice that their message included a phrase the server moderators considered inappropriate.

That discovery, once posted on X, was practically an open invitation. People began testing workarounds almost immediately, and it did not take long before "Microsl0p," with a zero in place of the letter "o," sailed right through the filter.

When I tried joining the server to see how things were unfolding firsthand, I could not. Server invites had been paused, which made things pretty clear for me.

Microsoft did eventually respond with an official statement:

The Copilot Discord channel has recently been targeted by spammers attempting to disrupt and overwhelm the space with harmful content not related to Copilot. Initially, this spam consisted of walls of text, so we added temporary filters for select terms to slow this activity.

We have since made the decision to temporarily lock down the server while we work to implement stronger safeguards to protect users from this harmful spam and help ensure the server remains a safe, usable space for the community.

That explains why I wasn't able to join the server. 😆

But does banning people, or spammers as they claim, actually address the real problem? Microsoft could also think twice before shoving AI into everything and branding it as everyone's 'companion,' 'pair programmer,' or whatever else sounds good in a press release.

If you were not familiar, GrapheneOS is an open source OS built on the Android Open Source Project. It ditches Google's data collection layer entirely and has long been the go-to for anyone serious about privacy.

But, it has been out of reach for most people as it only officially supports Google's Pixel line of smartphones.

Following this news, a spokesperson at GrapheneOS stated that:

We are thrilled to be partnering with Motorola to bring GrapheneOS’s industry‑leading privacy and security‑focused mobile operating system to their next-generation smartphone.

This collaboration marks a significant milestone in expanding the reach of GrapheneOS, and we applaud Motorola for taking this meaningful step towards advancing mobile security.

What to Expect?

The obvious outcome is a Motorola phone shipping with GrapheneOS pre-installed. The spokesperson's reference to "next-generation smartphone" suggests a specific device is already being worked on, even if Motorola isn't ready to show it yet.

Official GrapheneOS support for existing Motorola devices is a separate question. Expanding beyond Pixel hardware will take some significant developmental effort, and nothing has been confirmed there. The mention of "software enhancements" in the announcement language might be a hint, but a vague one.

What this partnership does more immediately is break the Pixel monopoly on GrapheneOS-compatible hardware. More device options means more people can actually use it, which is good for the project and good for the wider push toward privacy-respecting smartphones.

If this proves commercially viable, other manufacturers have little excuse not to follow. A privacy-focused phone is a real need right now, and it beats being in the business of trading user data.

Alongside this, Motorola also announced a new enterprise-grade analytics platform and new feature for its Moto Secure app that, when enabled, automatically strips metadata from camera images.

Suggested Read 📖: De-Googled Android-based Operating Systems

Years later, in 2026, I am sitting here wondering—this is not fiction, but something that could really happen one day, seeing how things are escalating thanks to a cabal of senile cretins and how quickly rights are being stripped from the general public.

You might've already noticed that there's a trend among governments to bring in age verification for deterring children from being exposed to harmful content and people.

But the methods deployed to ensure compliance either ask you to fork over extremely sensitive PII or fill out a form that *sternly* asks you of your age or age bracket.

Age Verification, Why?

A few days ago, we saw the U.S. state of Colorado wanting to make operating systems hand over age bracket data to apps. This would work via an API that transmits a user-reported "age signal" to verify a person's age range before they use the software.

While this is set for a January 1, 2028 adoption, there are a few hurdles it has to cross before it is set in stone.

A similarly worded bill has already been passed in California, where the Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) was signed into law back in October 2025.

Starting in 2027, it mandates that OS providers collect a user's birth date, age, or both at account setup and provide a signal to developers via a real-time API. This effectively forces the computer itself to act as the primary gatekeeper, telling every app you launch exactly which age bracket you fall into.

The Other Side

A federal judge in Virginia blocked the state from enforcing its social media age-limit law (SB 854) just a few days ago. The judge ruled that the mandate, which forced platforms to verify ages and limit minors to one hour of daily use, violates First Amendment rights by overextending to both adults and children and leaving out addictive interactive games.

Then there's Discord, which tried implementing an age verification system that blew up in its face. It had to distance itself from Persona after a massive backlash over privacy and security, and people were already on edge after a previous breach exposed nearly 70,000 government IDs. The situation has now hit a new low point where researchers have discovered Persona’s code was tied to extensive surveillance checks and global watchlists.

Even people over on Reddit are calling out such moves, with a Redditor, ForeverHuman1354, putting out a call to resist system-level age verification checks. They point out that even if the law in California doesn't require forking over identification, what's to stop anyone from normalizing doing so in the future?

And these age checks could easily be repurposed to identify the user of an app or operating system; not that Big Tech hasn't already done that with their never-ending greed for our data.

💬 Where do you think we’re headed? Is this really about safeguarding children, or are we just living out the plot of an Orwellian horror novel?

But it is not the only one. The Lenovo Legion Go S launched with SteamOS as an option, and devices like the AYANEO 3 have also attracted Linux users looking for Steam Deck alternatives.

One such upcoming option is the Orange Pi Neo, a Linux-first handheld built in collaboration between Orange Pi and Manjaro Linux. It has been in development for a while, and now it looks like it will stay that way for a bit longer.

Orange Pi Neo: The Wait Continues

The Manjaro team has been posting updates on the original announcement thread on their forums since early 2024, covering everything from hardware revisions and software improvements to certification progress and Valve's involvement in testing.

The latest update is a short one. And not in a good way.

It states that due to the high prices of DDR5 RAM and SSDs, the project is currently on ice. The team says they are waiting for a good time to launch the product, but with no particular date mentioned.

If you want to understand just how bad things have gotten, last year, a DDR5 chip that cost $6.84 in late September 2025 had climbed to $27.20 by December 1, nearly a fourfold jump in two months. AI data centers are eating up memory supply, and manufacturers are happy to oblige since the margins are far better than selling to consumers.

That said, it is worth pointing out that the Manjaro team has not been sitting idle. The same update notes that the Orange Pi Neo has already cleared both CE and FCC certifications, which are the regulatory approvals required to sell an electronic product legally in Europe and the United States, respectively.

Moreover, they have continued refining Manjaro Gaming Edition, the new operating system that will ship with the device, to make sure it is in good shape whenever the launch does happen.

What the Orange Pi Neo Brings to the Table

For those unfamiliar with the device, the Orange Pi Neo is built around AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U processor and features a 7-inch 1920x1200 display with a 120Hz refresh rate, dual touchpads similar in concept to the Steam Deck's, and Hall effect joysticks with RGB lighting.

On the software side, it runs Manjaro Gaming Edition, an immutable OS built on top of Manjaro Linux with Plasma as the desktop environment. It boots into SteamUI by default but lets you switch over to a Desktop mode when needed.

The RAM and SSD pricing situation is not unique to this project. AI data center demand has sent DDR5 prices through the roof over the past few months, and consumer hardware is feeling the brunt.

Suggested Read 📖: AI Craze Just Made Your New PC Build Way More Expensive

Think of systemd as the "manager" of your computer. When something goes wrong, like your Wi-Fi won't connect or a creative app keeps crashing, systemd is the one with all the answers.

But where to find those answers? systemd has built-in tools that help you troubleshoot issues with your system. If you’re just starting your Linux journey, I recommend exploring the following four tools.

1. Systemctl

In Linux, background apps are called services. If your system is not accepting SSH connections, you use systemctl to see what’s happening under the hood.

I mean, before you try to fix something, you need to know if it's actually broken.

sudo systemctl status ssh

This is the most important command in a Linux user’s toolkit. When you run it, pay attention to the Active line:

• Active (running): Everything is great!
• Inactive (dead): The service is off. Maybe it crashed, or maybe you never turned it on.
• Failed: This is the red flag. systemd will usually give you a "Main PID" (Process ID) and a reason for the failure right there in the terminal.

The "turn it off and on again" trick

We’ve all heard it: "Have you tried restarting it?" Restart a service in Linux with systemctl.

• Kickstart a failed one: sudo systemctl start ssh
• Stop a lagging service: sudo systemctl stop ssh
• Reset: sudo systemctl restart ssh
• Disable a service (to speed up boot): sudo systemctl disable ssh

2. Journalctl

When an app crashes, it doesn't just vanish. It usually screams an error message into the void. Journalctl is the tool that catches those screams and saves them in a "journal" for you to read later.

Unlike old-school Linux logs (which were scattered across dozens of text files), systemd keeps everything in one central, encrypted location.

Filtering the noise

If you just type journalctl, you’ll see thousands of lines of code, most of it is boring stuff like "System time updated." To be a good detective, you need to filter:

journalctl -xe

• -x: Adds "catalog" info (it explains the errors in plain English).
• -e: Jumps straight to the end of the log so you see the newest stuff first.

Targeting a Specific App: If you want to check the issue with a specific app, don't read everything, just read the entries for that specific app:

journalctl -u ssh

Time Travel: Did your computer freeze two hours ago? You can ask the journal to show you only that time frame:

journalctl --since "2 hours ago"

3. Systemd-analyze

Is your computer taking forever to start up? Instead of guessing which app is slowing you down, you can ask systemd-analyze to blame the culprit. This tool measures every millisecond of your boot process and tells you exactly which service is holding things up.

Run this command to see a ranked list of the slowest-starting apps:

systemd-analyze blame

You might find that a "Modem Manager" you don't even use is taking 2 minutes to start. This gives you the power to disable it and save time every time you turn on your PC.

Additionally, some apps can't start until other apps are finished. If App A waits for App B, it creates a chain.

systemd-analyze critical-chain

This shows you the path systemd took to reach your desktop. If one link in the chain is slow, the whole system feels sluggish. You can learn more about optimizing Linux boot speed in our dedicated guide.

4. Coredumpctl

Sometimes, an app doesn't just have an error, it crashes completely. In programmer terms, it "dumped its core." This means the app threw its entire memory onto the floor and quit.

Coredumpctl is like a forensic investigator. It lets you look at that memory "snapshot" to see what the app was doing right before it died.

Listing the crashes

To see a table of every app that has crashed on your system recently, use:

coredumpctl list

The "Detective Report"

If you see that your favorite app crashed, you can get the full report by using its Process ID (PID) from the list:

coredumpctl info [PID]

This will show you things like the "Signal" (usually SIGSEGV, which means the app tried to touch memory it wasn't allowed to) and a "Stack Trace" (the last few functions the app ran).

Conclusion

By using these systemd tools, you’ve moved past the "I'll just reboot and hope for the best" stage. You can now see the status of your apps, read their logs, speed up your boot time, and investigate crashes like a seasoned Linux user.

Next time something feels "off" on your Linux machine, don't panic. Just remember: systemctl for the status, journalctl for the logs, systemd-analyze for the speed, and coredumpctl for the crash.

So, if hearing all that makes you want to just roll up your sleeves and build one yourself, then this indie game might scratch that itch.

Data Center: A Work in Progress

Data Center is an upcoming simulation game from solo developer Václav Novák, who goes by Waseku on Steam. He is based in Brno, Czech Republic, and has been building games since 2020 using the Unity engine.

The main idea here is that you build and manage a data center from scratch. That involves buying racks, servers, and switches; physically placing and stacking your hardware; and then running cables between ports to tie it all together.

It lets the player monitor network traffic via colored, sphere-shaped balls that move around in the cables, and any idle network cable connections are easy to spot. You earn money by serving customers according to their requirements and capacity expectations.

When you process data successfully, you get money, gain experience to unlock better hardware, and build your reputation to draw in larger clients.

Worth Playing?

Possibly. I played the free demo on a Nobara Linux system, and the overall experience was okayish.

First, I configured the graphical settings, disabling NVIDIA DLSS and cranking most settings to their highest possible states. When I went into the game, the game was capped at 50 FPS.

Turns out VSync was the culprit (unsurprisingly), so I disabled it and set a 100 FPS limit.

But the performance woes didn't end there, as throughout gameplay, there were visible drops in the FPS that happened intermittently; the performance graph on the top-right (for FPS) shows it well. 👇

Even forcing the use of Proton Experimental didn’t seem to help, so I rolled with it. Plus, some reviews of the demo on Steam mention this issue, so it was probably that.

The game doesn’t have a proper new player tutorial just yet; it shows some vague objectives, and I had to find my way through the game. The closest thing to an onboarding guide is the Tutorial menu found by pressing the Esc key.

I could read up on how to handle customers, how to configure a server, what kinds of racks and units were available, and a lot more beyond that.

Initially, I was lost and placed patch panels, switches, and servers randomly, without any sense of how these are usually arranged. After a quick web search and closely following what the minuscule object tracker was saying, I was on the correct path.

First, I went to the computer at the desk and headed into the shop. Here, I could unlock some starter server hardware for 0 XP and continue building up from there.

As you can see, I purchased a few patch panels and racks to start populating my data center. The provided utility cart for transferring items from the shipping bay to the server room is, well, jank.

It either keeps any placed items intact or it tosses them off as if it has a mind of its own. Even moving it around is a chore, as it has a habit of clipping below the floor for a quick trip to the underworld.

Placing new racks is another story. You just pick up a rectangular cardboard box and press E to install it over a designated spot on the floor. And to place network switches, patch panels, or servers, a handy yellow-colored outline is shown in the available space on a rack.

Wiring all of that up is effortless too. After purchasing 100 meters (🦅 328 ft) of CAT6E cable, I was able to connect the server hardware, with some slip-ups that I fixed later during my play.

Onboarding new customers is as simple as connecting a wire from the network switch to the outbound connection panel thingy; I am unsure what that's called. Here, you select a customer, review what they want, and then a small guide pops up on how to get them hooked up.

I then turned on the power for the servers and set the IP addresses from the individual control panel to get the connection up. I had to add a few more servers and turn on the network switches before I could serve the customer, "Bermuda Triangle Backup" at 40000 IOPS speed.

If you noticed the abysmal cable management job I did in the video above, then fret not; I have redeemed myself by fixing it (in the video below). But before that, you have to know that there are handy cable management loops across the racks and the roof of the server room that make your job easier.

You can also increase the space of your server room by purchasing additional space for 1,000 in-game currency per block. If you see a pile of strewn-about servers, ignore it.

Making use of the aforementioned mounts, I neatly rerouted the Ethernet cabling to clean up the spiderweb-like arrangement I had in place. As you saw, it is fairly easy to do, provided you have some patience and a little obsession with keeping things in proper alignment.

Overall, the game needs a lot of polish before launch. A proper tutorial would be a good start because right now new players are pretty much left to figure things out on their own.

On my wishlist for later upgrades would be multi-storey data centers, a utility cart that actually works without going into a void, and a computer portal that isn't so basic and awkward to use.

How to Play?

A free demo with some restrictions has been available on Steam for some time now. The game is planned to launch on March 31, 2026, though without any pricing information yet.

There is also no mention of an early access release, so it looks like Václav is aiming for a stable 1.0 release.

The other maintainer is Sasha Levin, who co-maintains these Linux kernel releases alongside Greg. Now, the updated support schedule for the currently active LTS kernels looks like this:

• Linux 6.6 now EOLs Dec 2027 (was Dec 2026), giving it a 4-year support window.
• Linux 6.12 now EOLs Dec 2028 (was Dec 2026), also a 4-year window.
• Linux 6.18 now EOLs Dec 2028 (was Dec 2027), at least 3 years of support.

Worth noting above is that Linux 5.10 and 5.15 are both hitting EOL this year in December, so if your distro is still running either of these, now is a good time to start thinking about a move.

If you are not that deep into the kernel rabbit hole, then you need to know that most releases only get about two months of active support before the next one takes over. LTS releases are the exception here.

They get years of backported security patches and bug fixes without any new features that make it a great choice for desktop, embedded hardware, and servers that need stability over bleeding-edge features.

Back in 2023, things were slightly different. At the Open Source Summit Europe event, it was disclosed that LTS support windows were being cut from six years down to just two. Burnout was cited as the main culprit, as too many contributors were working unpaid and had to handle a flood of bugs generated by fuzzing tools.

The change in question here does not undo that decision entirely, but it does push back against the shorter support window, at least for the current batch of LTS kernels.

What Does This Mean?

For most desktop Linux users, this change is barely noticeable. If you're running Ubuntu, Fedora, or most mainstream distros, the kernel side of things is handled for you. You don't need to keep track of specific releases, your distro does it for you and notifies you when there's an update.

But for anyone running embedded systems, single-board computers, or servers, moving across kernel versions is tricky, and EOL dates are a big deal. Once a kernel hits EOL, it stops getting security patches.

The longer support window is also relevant for hardware vendors and device manufacturers who ship Linux on their products. Certifying against a specific kernel version takes time and resources. Knowing that kernel will be patched until 2028 instead of 2026 changes the math on when an upgrade cycle even needs to start.

So the short version is, if you're a regular user, nothing changes today. If you depend on a specific LTS kernel for anything critical, you just got more breathing room than you had yesterday.

Suggested Read 📖: What Is Liquorix Kernel? Should You Use It?

It has been just a year since Anthropic launched Claude Code and the impact has been staggering.

In recent months, engineers at Anthropic reportedly stopped writing code manually for large parts of their workflow. Instead, they’ve been shipping feature after feature with AI-assisted development. The velocity is unlike anything we’ve seen before.

And the market noticed. Claude’s latest model release this month reportedly wiped out trillions of dollars from IT stocks globally within a single week.

Then came another shock.

A week later, Anthropic published a blog post claiming its AI can now modernize legacy COBOL codebases. IBM’s stock dropped 16% in a single day. Why? Because IBM still generates significant revenue maintaining mainframe systems that power banks, airlines, and critical financial infrastructure.

And don’t assume this only affects programmers. This shift touches all of us.

A recent research paper showed that tools like Claude and ChatGPT can de-anonymize your anonymous online identity with surprising ease.

The barrier to uncovering digital identities is collapsing. AI isn’t just changing how code is written. It’s changing privacy, security, and the economics of entire industries.

But here’s the important part.

Every major computing shift felt destabilizing at first; from assembly to high-level languages, from physical servers to the cloud. We’re witnessing the beginning of a new era. And we’re still early.

Here's the highlight of this edition of FOSS Weekly:

• Red Hat open-sourcing a tool.
• Some dock options for your system.
• Lightweight OpenClaw alternatives.
• New KDE Plasma release with many upgrades.
• And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!

Humble Bundle has brought back the "Linux for Seasoned Admins" ebook bundle offer (partner link). From the classic Linux Pocket Guide and my favorite, Efficient Linux at the Command Line, the bundle also has ebooks on Docker, Ansible, Kubernetes and other devops aspects of Linux.

And your purchase also supports the Code for America initiative.

📰 Linux and Open Source News

Here's a summary of the news this week.

Red Hat has open-sourced a digital sovereignty assessment tool under the Apache 2.0 license. It asks 21 questions across 7 domains and scores organizations on a four-level maturity scale.

KDE Plasma 6.6 just landed with some practical upgrades. Spectacle now does OCR so you can pull text straight from screenshots, there's a new setup wizard for fresh installs, and WiFi QR code scanning works if you've got a camera.

Colorado's pushing a bill that would force operating system makers to ask users their age at setup, then share that info with every app they install. The bill never explains how age gets verified. Anyone could just lie.

Independent web browser Ladybird just ported 25,000 lines of its JavaScript engine from C++ to Rust in two weeks using Claude Code and Codex AI. The code passed 52,000+ tests with zero failures.

Australia's cyber agency recently open-sourced Azul, a malware analysis platform for incident responders. It stores samples indefinitely, automates reverse engineering with reusable plugins, and clusters patterns across malware families.

ONLYOFFICE's latest desktop editor release brings improvements to its PDF editing capabilities among other things.

🧠 What We’re Thinking About

App stores work great until you need real package control. This opinion piece by Roland argues Linux needs a modern Synaptic replacement for power users, but built with the Wayland security model in mind instead of running everything as root.

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings

Our comprehensive guide to keyboard shortcuts in Linux Mint covers everything from basics like Super for the start menu and Ctrl+Alt+T for the terminal to workspace management, window tiling, screenshots, and session control.

Looking to replace your Linux desktop's default dock? We covered seven options ranging from lightweight Plank to the heavily customizable Latte and the old-school Cairo. Also includes a window manager-friendly pick like Tint2.

Linux distros are switching to Wayland by default, but legacy apps still need Xorg, so knowing which display server you're running matters when troubleshooting. A quick terminal command reveals whether you're on Wayland or X11.

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner

OpenClaw's memory hunger kills it on Raspberry Pi and cheap SBCs. Here are some projects that remedy it by building an AI agent architecture for constrained hardware.

✨ Apps and Projects Highlights

To-do apps usually mine your data for ads. Super Productivity doesn't collect anything, just asks for notification access. It also offers Jira sync, Pomodoro timers, and time tracking.

📽️ Videos for You

In the llatest video, I share how I clean up systemd logs on my Linux systems, both desktop and servers.

💡 Quick Handy Tip

In Linux Mint (Cinnamon desktop), you can right-click the title of a window and enable "Always on Top" and "Always on Visible Workspace". This ensures that the currently open window stays on your current workspace, and will be above every other app window.

You will also find this on other modern desktop environments like KDE Plasma and GNOME as well.

🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse

Can you correctly guess these legendary open source projects?

🤣 Meme of the Week: Oh, how the times change. From Arch Linux to Debian.

🗓️ Tech Trivia: On February 25, 1959, MIT and the U.S. Air Force debuted APT (Automatically Programmed Tool) (I know you thought about the Linux one). It was the world’s first "English-like" programming language for machinery, effectively birthing Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM).

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From the Community: The Apache Software Foundation is looking for people to present at Community Over Code 2026 in Glasgow. Are you up for it?

If that's not your cup of tea, why not talk with a fellow FOSSer about their kernel panic issue.

Well, a brand-new research paper just blew that idea apart. It's called "Large-scale online deanonymization with LLMs" which is a fancy way of saying "figuring out the real person behind a secret online name".

The researchers include people ETH Zurich and, Anthropic (parent company of Claude), and a research group called MATS and they proved that today's super-powerful AI chatbots can play detective and unmask people way better than ever before.

How does it work?

Think of the AI as a detective like Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes. Only this detective is super fast and super smart. It has read every single post ever written online. Here's how their system works in simple steps:

1. Read and spot clues: The AI looks at your posts and pulls out little hints about you. Things you that are part of your personality. Like it can see that this person talks a lot about coding games in Python, loves Marvel movies, complains about school in Seattle, and types with a certain style.
2. Search the whole internet: It quietly checks LinkedIn, Google, other Reddit accounts, etc., to find possible real people who match those clues.
3. Think hard and double-check: The AI reasons like "Is this a match? The writing style is the same, the hobbies line up, the timing fits... yep, 90% sure!"

The researchers called their method ESRC which stands for Extract clues, Search, Reason, Calibrate how sure they are. No human needed; it's all automatic.

Pretty (scary) impressive results

If you think it's all theory, you are going to be disappointed.

On real Hacker News users, the AI correctly linked the secret username to the real person 67% of the time, and when it made a guess, it was right 90%. The paper also states that matching the same person's Reddit posts from different years or groups met with 68% success.

That's not the scary part. The thing is that it costs only upto $4 to check a person. Anyone with a good chatbot (think future ChatGPT or Claude) could do it.

One of the main researchers, Simon Lermen, said it straight:

Could a team of smart investigators figure out who you are from your posts? If yes, these AI agents can likely do the same – and the cost is only going down.

Private life becomes less private

Until now, staying hidden online was pretty easy because it took human experts hours or days. Now? One person (or a bad guy, a bully, a stalker, a company, or even government) can run this on thousands of accounts super fast.

This means that someone could find your real name, school, city, or job from just a few comments. Stalkers or bullies could dox you. Companies could secretly link all your accounts and track everything you do.

The old idea that "if I use a fake name, I'm safe" doesn't work anymore. It's the end of practical obscurity. Meaning you used to be kind of hidden in practice, but not anymore. Welcome to a new kind of 1984!

Lately, it seems the tech industry has been in a collaborative mood. Just recently, Meta moved React under a dedicated foundation for open, neutral governance. Now, another collective has formed with a similar spirit, but for Arm.

CoreCollective: Big Names Team Up

Arm and Linaro have jointly announced CoreCollective, a free and open industry consortium focused on furthering the Arm software ecosystem. The goal is to give companies a neutral space to collaborate on shared software challenges.

If you didn't know of Linaro, it is a UK-based organization that has been around since 2010 with the goal to weave together the fragmented Arm software ecosystem. The result of their hard work is out there, with the most notable one being Arm64 support in the Linux kernel.

Alongside this launch, the organization is also restructuring. Going forward, it will operate both as the host of CoreCollective for open collaboration and as a fully commercial services provider for companies building products on Arm.

The consortium has launched with the following members:

Speaking on this, Li Gong, the CEO of Linaro, stated that:

As the ecosystem expands, we must scale our impact. CoreCollective with Arm’s backing removes the financial barrier to entry, making collaboration more inclusive, free and open to anyone to join and participate.

By running CoreCollective alongside Linaro’s commercial services, we can support more partners in the Arm ecosystem, be it through industry-wide cooperation or tailored, one-to-one service agreements.

If you were looking for the why, Arm's reach has expanded well past its mobile roots, now covering AI, cloud, edge, automotive, and client compute. That growth has brought significant software complexity with it, and no single company can maintain full enablement on its own.

A diverse group of industry players collaborating under one neutral structure should make it easier to address challenges that apply across the whole stack.

What Can We Expect?

CoreCollective operates through working groups, each focused on a specific part of the Arm software stack. Seven are confirmed at launch: Linux Fundamentals, Confidential Compute, Windows on Arm, Android, Edge Compute, Virtualization, and Data Center.

Members can propose new working groups at any time, and groups that wind down eventually get archived.

Of course, membership is free. Any company can join by filling out the CoreCollective Membership Agreement and sending it to the team for countersignature. There are three tiers here, General Members, Sponsoring Members, and Individual Members.

All code contributions must use an OSI-approved license with a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off. Any contributed documentation material falls under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, with a Governing Board handling oversight, and a Technical Advisory Committee managing working groups.

Suggested Read 📖: React Is No Longer Meta's Project

The previous point release brought AI-powered grammar checks, macro recording, and customizable keyboard shortcuts.

Now, the developers have pushed out ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.3, and it is a fairly substantial update.

🆕 ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.3: What's New?

Starting with the Document Editor, you can now use Multipage View to display pages side by side, which makes reviewing layouts in documents a lot more practical.

Comments also got a small but useful upgrade. Now, each user gets a unique color, and the exact start and end points of the comments are shown, so you always know what is being discussed.

The Spreadsheet Editor gets a handful of welcome additions too. The new Solver tool lets you tackle linear optimization problems using the Simplex method. It is accessible from the Data tab.

Three regex functions have been added to the formula library: REGEXTEST, REGEXREPLACE, and REGEXEXTRACT, which should make handling complex text data substantially less painful.

There is also support for dynamic arrays, where a formula can spill results into neighboring cells automatically. Performance-wise, the initial load time for large spreadsheets (over 3 MB) has been improved.

For Presentations, the editor now supports GIF animations in slideshow mode, so you no longer need to rely on video files or external links for showcasing your cat memes and brainrot content.

The PDF Editor sees the most attention in this release. You can now unlock and edit password-protected PDFs directly, provided you have the password. Link management has been added, letting you insert and edit links to external resources or internal pages, with those links staying active even in the commenting mode.

Signature options in PDF forms have expanded too. On top of uploading an image (now with a background removal option), users can type a signature using a stylized font or draw one directly on screen using a mouse or touch input.

Enterprise users get an additional option to upload a signing certificate through the Admin Panel, enabling trusted digital signatures on submitted forms.

Speaking of enterprise, the Admin Panel has picked up several new tools. You can now complete final server configuration from a dedicated window, obtain an HTTPS certificate via script, manage and upload custom fonts, upload a license file, and access per-organization metrics from the Statistics tab.

Across all editors, you can now add hyperlinks to images, shapes, and groups in both documents and spreadsheets. Files can also be saved in the .md format, and TSV files can now be opened for viewing.

Diagram Viewer comes equipped with a print panel, making it easier to print diagrams with the required parameters.

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors now supports Box and Dropbox integration, making it possible to connect these platforms for more convenient file management.

📥 Download ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.3

As always, self-hosting users can grab this release from the official website, and for the rest of us, the desktop editors should be a good download. Just keep in mind that new releases take some time before they are made available.

The changelog summarizes all the changes introduced with ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.3.

Suggested Read 📖: 6 Best Open Source Alternatives to Microsoft Office for Linux