Merry Christmas to you and family from It’s FOSS family 🎄💚

This is the last FOSS Weekly of the year 2025. For two years in a row, I managed to send the newsletter for all 52 weeks of the year. Not only that, I also uploaded one YouTube video each week this year. That was one of my new year resolutions for 2025. I am lowkey proud of these achievements, especially when I had a busy time mid-year with the arrival of my second child.

It’s Christmas time, and I have come bearing gifts. Here’s a PDF that contains a compilation of various nifty command line tips. Enjoy.

More gifts 🎁: If you are a Plus member, you’ll find a Docker eBook and a couple more in the Pro member resource page.

Christmas is the time for gifting. If you think It’s FOSS is doing a great work, please support us by opting for a Plus membership. You also get 5 eBooks on Linux, Docker and Bash scripting.

Our lifetime membership option is available for $89 (instead of $149). This special price is applicable till 31st December only.

Lifetime Membership at $89 (instead of $149)

In the true Christmas spirit, I would also appreciate donations via our Ko-Fi page. No amount is too small 🙏

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

• elementary OS 8.1 release.
• Another Linux phone.
• First Rust CVE in Linux kernel.
• An interesting take on Linux desktop fragementation.
• And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!
• This week of FOSS Weekly is supported by Depot.

📰 Linux and Open Source News

• Red Hat has bought Chatterbox Labs.
• Docker’s Hardened Images are now free for all.
• PeerTube has recently received two major updates.
• A Christmas gift has landed in the form of elementary OS 8.1!
• Tiger Data has open-sourced its PostgreSQL BM25 extension.
• Ubuntu 26.04 has been confirmed to ship with Linux kernel 6.20.
• The first Rust CVE in the Linux kernel was recently found and patched. We Have Another New Linux Phone Before 2025 Ends...And It’s Not For You (or Me)FuriLabs launches enterprise-only VX1 with MDM capabilities for companies.It’s FOSSSourav Rudra

🧠 What We’re Thinking About

It’s time to look forward to the next year. Sourav and I collectively wrote an article to make some predictions about desktop Linux ecosystem in 2026.

Here’s Our Prediction for the Future of Desktop Linux in 2026Our take on the trends that will shape desktop Linux and open source in the year ahead.It’s FOSSAbhishek Prakash

Roland has an interesting take on why Linux desktop fragmentation is a good thing.

Linux Desktop is Fragmented (And That’s NOT a Bad Thing)Linux desktop is often described as fragmented, but with the right perspective, it becomes clear that this description only makes sense if you see Linux as a single, unified product, and expect it act like one. It isn’t, and so it doesn’t.It’s FOSSRoland Taylor

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings

A Linux system monitor that actually shows more than CPU and RAM.

jdSystemMonitor: More Than Your Regular System Monitor on LinuxBringing system resources and internal details together in one place, jdSystemMonitor is a solid and lightweight option for desktop Linux users.It’s FOSSRoland Taylor

Trying out Package Forge for easier Linux app management.

Linux Apps Without Distro Lock-In? Explore This Lesser Known Snap and Flatpak AlternativeMeet PkgForge: A Distro-Independent Portable Apps ‘Foundry’ for Linux UsersIt’s FOSSRoland Taylor

Make GitHub binary installs effortless using these handy helpers.

And here are some of the new distros we covered on It’s FOSS in 2025.

5 New Linux Distributions We Discovered in 2025No, this is not a list of all the new distros that came up in 2025. We are listing the ones we covered throughout this year.It’s FOSSPulkit Chandak

👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner

Learn step-by-step how to run your own photo server with PhotoPrism in your homelab.

What Google Photos? Self-Hosting Photo Storage with PhotoPrism Using Docker in My HomelabPhotoPrism offers one path toward that goal of data ownership. With PhotoPrism, your vacation photos don’t become training data for someone else’s business model. They remain what they actually are, your memories, under your control.It’s FOSSBhuwan Mishra

This year’s Steam Winter Sale has some great titles for Linux gamers to grab!

13 Awesome Games Linux Users Can Grab in Steam Winter Sale 🎮 (Ends 5 January)End 2025 on a winning note by grabbing some fun games for your Linux gaming rig!It’s FOSSSourav Rudra

Kyocera, the Japanese congloromerate, has introduced Meta-Lens, a really cool piece of tech that uses an ultra-thin, flat lens to control light in new ways.

Void Phone VX1 debuts as an enterprise-ready Linux smartphone.

✨ Apps and Projects Highlights

Ditch the cloud with this open source kanban board:

Away from Cloud: This Local, Offline Tool is Perfect for Personal Project Management on Linux DesktopWe have all been there. You start the week with a massive to-do list, only to feel overwhelmed by Tuesday afternoon. While heavy-duty project management tools exist, sometimes you just need a digital version of “sticky notes on a wall”.It’s FOSSNeville Ondara

The upcoming Armbian Imager looks promising.

📽️ Videos I Am Creating for You

Enjoy the ‘Kristmas Kustomization’ video 😉

💡 Quick Handy Tip

If your mouse has more than three buttons, then you can assign those buttons to be used for desktop actions in KDE Plasma. To do that, first right-click on an empty place in the desktop and select "Desktop and Wallpaper". Here, go into the "Mouse Actions" menu.

Now, click on the "Add Action" button and start assigning actions to the various mouse buttons. There are options to switch activity, window, paste from clipboard, and a few others.

Click on "Apply" when you are done assigning.

🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse

Call yourself a command-line guru? Prove your skills then.

Command-line Tools GuruDo you know recognize these powerful CLI tools and what they’re used for? Take this test!It’s FOSSAnkush Das

🤣 Meme of the Week: Santa can be very mean sometimes. 😮‍💨

🗓️ Tech Trivia: On December 19, 1974, the Altair 8800 microcomputer went on sale from MITS, becoming the first commercially successful personal computer and helping spark the modern PC era despite requiring users to assemble the kit and operate it using only switches and indicator lights.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From the Community: Neville, a long-time FOSSer, has kicked off an interesting conversation surrounding curved monitors.

Does anyone use a curved screen?I have been thinking about getting a wider screen. Most of the wider screens on offer seem to be curved. I have been wondering how does a curved screen go for normal computer use … ie not video or games if I draw a graph, do straight lines come out distorted on a curved screen.? is there any eyesight benefit in terms of keeping a fixed focal distance? I would appreciate hearing any opinions or experiencesIt’s FOSS Communitynevj

📊 Year 2025 for It’s FOSS in numbers

It’s FOSS website had more than 24 million pageviews. And an overwhelming percentage of those views have been from repeat visitors. Which means there are regular readers who read most of the content we write 🙏

With 52 weeks of consistency on YouTube, we saw gradual improvements. Our videos were watched over a million time in 2025.

Our Instagram account grew almost doubled to 99,600 followers. We actually post lots of fun content there which is more for people from 18-39 years of age but can surely be enjoyed by people of all age groups.

X (formerly known as Twitter) account grew to 154,000 people.

Our Mastodon profile now has 46,000 followers and that’s a pleasant surprise. I did not expect such a huge following on a non-mainstream social media platform. Even our BlueSky account is nearing the 10,000 mark.

Our Telegram channel has over 11,000 members now. Our group chat could still not be restored, so it’s pretty much one-way communication here.

We started posting on Facebook again as some of our regulars are active there. And we saw gradual improvements in engagement as well as followers count.

The FOSS Weekly newsletter now has over 30,000 subscribers but only around 600 Plus members. More than 300 of them are lifetime Plus members. Perhaps you would like to join the lifetime membership, get free ebooks and support us at the same time?

Lifetime MembershipPay once, enjoy foreverIt’s FOSSAbhishek Prakash

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Enjoy FOSS 😄

About the author

Abhishek Prakash

Created It’s FOSS 13 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 🕵️‍♂️