Welcome to the 50th week of Linuxiac’s 2025 Weekly Roundup, your go-to source for everything Linux and open source. Here are the top Linux and FOSS highlights from December 8 to 14.

Linux Distributions

This week brought five important updates in the Linux world, and I’ve covered each one in the articles below.

• Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Launches With COSMIC Desktop 1.0 Stable
• Kali Linux 2025.4 Released With GNOME 49, KDE Plasma 6.5
• AerynOS Delivers December Updates With New Alpha ISO
• Manjaro 25.1 Preview Released, but Users Are Urged Not to Update Yet
• Tails 7.3.1 Launches After Security Issue Delays Release

Software Updates

Apart from the distro releases, here’s a quick summary of the latest open-source software updates that made the news.

• Cinnamon 6.6 Desktop Environment Lands With Major Menu Redesign
• KDE Plasma 6.5.4 Improves Stability with December Bugfix Update
• KDE Frameworks 6.21 Is Out With Extensive Bug Fixes
• KDE Gear 25.12 Apps Collection Delivers Holiday Updates Across Apps and Tools
• Firefox 146 Now Available for Download, Here’s What’s New
• Mozilla Thunderbird 146 Brings OpenPGP Keyserver Settings
• Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.2 Improves Write Speeds And UI Stability
• NVIDIA Releases Linux Driver 580.119 With Fixes for Vulkan and EGL Apps
• Krita 5.2.14 Rolls Out Enhanced Touch Controls and New Color Picker
• PeerTube 8.0 Brings a Modern Video Player and Team Channel Management
• Bcachefs 1.33 Delivers Its Biggest Upgrade Yet With Full Reconcile Support
• Pangolin 1.13 Released With Private Resources and User Device Access
• NetworkManager 1.54.3 Improves Certificate Access Checks
• Ventoy 1.1.09 Released With Experimental Btrfs Support
• OpenTofu 1.11 Introduces Ephemerality for Safer Temporary Credentials
• RPM 6.0.1 Fixes Key Regressions And Improves Signature Handling
• Libxml2 Becomes Officially Unmaintained After Maintainer Steps Down

Must-Reads You Can’t Miss

There was also some exciting news from the Linux and FOSS community this week. Here are the highlights.

• GNOME Will Reject Shell Extensions With AI-Generated Code
• KDE Surpasses 2025 Fundraiser Goal With Record Community Support
• KDE Plasma 6.6 Will Enhance Display Handling and Scaling on Wayland
• FSF Announces 2024 Free Software Award Winners
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) Joins Linux Foundation in Major AI Shift
• Jolla’s Community Linux Phone Surpasses Its Funding Goal

Hardware Updates

We also spotted two new open-source powered devices worth checking out.

• Diptyx Open Source Dual-Screen E-Reader Launches on Crowd Supply
• Pebble Index 01 Arrives as a Private Open Source Voice Capture Ring

That’s all for this week. If you missed our previous wrap-up from Week 49 of 2025 (Dec 1–7), you can catch up here, where you’ll find Alpine Linux 3.23, Rocky Linux 9.7, Proxmox Launches Datacenter Manager 1.0, Linux Kernel 6.18, VLC 3.0.22, NVIDIA Display Driver v590 Beta, WordPress 6.9, When Linus Met Linus, Which Desktop Environment Do Arch Linux Users Prefer, Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena” Nears Release, Jolla Launches Community-Funded Linux Phone, and more.

Be sure to keep an eye on Linuxiac for the latest updates from the Linux and open-source world.

Have a great week ahead!

Bobby Borisov

Bobby, an editor-in-chief at Linuxiac, is a Linux professional with over 20 years of experience. With a strong focus on Linux and open-source software, he has worked as a Senior Linux System Administrator, Software Developer, and DevOps Engineer for small and large multinational companies.