Articles about Open Source

Microsoft Build is usually about cutting edge development, but sometimes there are nods to the past. And this is precisely what is happening with the company’s new text editor.

Named -- uninspiringly -- Edit, this text editor is not only open-source, but it is a command line tool. While clearly not something that will be of interest to the majority of Windows 11 users, it is something that has strong developer appeal.

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Well, it finally happened, folks. Microsoft has open-sourced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), giving developers full access to its code on GitHub! Yes, after nearly a decade of closed development and repeated requests from the community, the company has handed over the keys -- inviting coders to inspect, improve, and contribute to the very core of how Linux runs on Windows.

This isn’t some half-baked gesture, either. Microsoft has released the core WSL package (the components that power WSL 2) under an open source license. This includes command-line tools like wsl.exe, background services, init processes, networking daemons, and the Plan9-based file sharing system. You can now build WSL from source, fork it, or pitch in directly on GitHub.

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In a world full of AI agents seemingly trying to take control away, Microsoft has done something surprisingly refreshing -- it is handing the wheel back to the user.

With the launch of Magentic-UI, a new open source research prototype, Microsoft is inviting developers and researchers to explore a different kind of AI assistant. One that doesn’t just act on its own, but actually collaborates with people in a transparent, controllable way.

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Cloud security company Sysdig has announced the donation of Stratoshark, the company's open source cloud forensics tool, to the Wireshark Foundation.

This move is aimed at fostering innovation within the community, building in the open, and pushing security forward with advanced tools that better understand cloud-native environments.

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Canonical is making a huge change in Ubuntu that longtime Linux users might not expect (or like). You see, beginning with the upcoming Ubuntu 25.10, the popular Linux distribution will begin the process of ditching the classic sudo tool in favor of a modern reimagining called sudo-rs. This change is more than a simple code swap -- it’s a sea change in how privilege escalation is handled on Linux, with a clear focus on security and long-term sustainability.

So what exactly is sudo-rs? Well, as the name implies, it’s a new implementation of the familiar sudo command, but this version is written entirely in Rust -- a programming language known for its strict memory safety and reliability. If you’re worried about compatibility, don’t panic; sudo-rs is designed as a drop-in replacement for the original. For most users, it will just work.

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Well, it has finally happened. Fedora Linux is now officially available as a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distribution! That’s right, folks, following prior testing, you can now run Fedora 42 natively inside Windows using WSL. As someone who considers Fedora to be my favorite Linux distribution, this is a pretty exciting development.

Installing it is simple enough. Just open up a terminal and type wsl --install FedoraLinux-42 to get started. After that, launch it with wsl -d FedoraLinux-42 and set your username. No password is required by default, and you’ll automatically be part of the wheel group, meaning you can use sudo right out of the gate.

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AlmaLinux 9.6 Beta has officially been released (download here), giving Linux fans and enterprise users an early peek at what’s coming next from this Red Hat-compatible distribution.

The new beta is codenamed “Sage Margay” and is available right now for x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, and s390x systems. Keep in mind, this is a pre-release build, so don’t go installing it on anything mission-critical unless you’re ready for things to break.

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Let’s be honest, y’all -- it is pretty easy to feel overwhelmed by everything going on these days. Bad news seems to hit from every direction, leaving many people feeling helpless or anxious. But believe it or not, there is a simple, satisfying way to take back a little bit of control -- by breathing new life into an old computer with a refreshing Linux distribution such as 4MLinux.

You see, the new 4MLinux 48.0 series has officially been declared stable (download here), and it brings a whole lot to the table for such a lightweight operating system. Whether you want to write documents in LibreOffice 25.2 or GNOME Office (featuring AbiWord 3.0.5, GIMP 2.10.38, and Gnumeric 1.12.59), this little distro has you covered. Browsing the web is easy too, with both Firefox 137.0 and Chrome 135.0 ready to roll. Thunderbird 128.9 is there if you still prefer handling email the old-fashioned way.

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Brave just made a move that should make privacy enthusiasts pretty happy. The company has officially open sourced Cookiecrumbler, a tool designed to automatically detect and help block those obnoxious cookie consent banners you see across the Web. These pop-ups are not only annoying but, according to research, often track users even when they click reject. Cookiecrumbler aims to stop that nonsense while avoiding the headaches that can come with sloppy blocking rules.

Lately, Brave has been my go-to web browser. It’s open source, cross-platform, and runs beautifully on Linux, which I appreciate as a Linux fan. Even better, it handles ad-blocking on iOS -- something many other browsers don’t offer. And perhaps most importantly, it does all of this without relying on Google.

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The ArcoLinux project is winding down after eight years because its project lead is beginning to feel his age.

Announcing the move in a blog post, Erik Dubois says the ArcoLinux community will discontinue its distribution and related projects.

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The folks behind OpenMandriva have officially released version 6.0 of their Linux distribution. This is the fixed-point “Rock” release, and not the rolling edition, so it is all about stability rather than chasing the latest experimental packages.

KDE Plasma 6 is the star of the show here, serving as the default desktop environment. Users can choose between X11 or Wayland sessions, but there’s a catch. If you plan to run OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 in VirtualBox, X11 is strongly recommended. The team warns about problems with Wayland on VirtualBox’s emulated GPU, though things work fine on real hardware or in QEMU with KVM. For VirtualBox, don’t forget to set VMSVGA to avoid boot issues.

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Earth Day is tomorrow, and it is a time to reflect on how we treat the planet we all share (until Elon Musk colonizes Mars, at least). While some people mark the day by picking up trash or planting a tree, there’s another simple yet powerful way to help the environment that you might not have considered -- install Linux on your aging computer instead of tossing it in the trash!

Old computers don’t have to die. In fact, most of them still have plenty of life left in them -- if you’re willing to ditch bloated operating systems that no longer support them. That’s where Linux comes in. Unlike Windows 11, which demands modern processors and fairly high-end specs just to boot, many Linux distributions run smoothly on older hardware. Whether it’s a decade-old laptop collecting dust or a desktop with a failed Windows installation, Linux can breathe new life into machines that would otherwise end up in landfills.

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Great news, folks -- the developers of Manjaro have officially launched version 25 of the popular Linux distribution. Codenamed “Zetar,” this release delivers updated desktop environments, new features aimed at improving performance and usability, and expanded hardware support through the latest Linux kernel.

The GNOME edition now ships with version 48 of the desktop environment, a release first introduced in March 2025. One of the key features is notification stacking, which organizes alerts from the same app into expandable groups. GNOME 48 also includes dynamic triple buffering, a technology aimed at delivering smoother animations and reducing skipped frames.

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After years of internal use, Ubisoft has open-sourced Chroma -- a real-time colorblind simulation tool. This accessibility software is designed to help developers better serve the 300 million people around the world who live with color vision deficiencies.

Originally developed in 2021 by Ubisoft’s Quality Control team in India, Chroma allows developers to simulate how a game looks to people with various forms of colorblindness -- all without slowing down performance. It works on both single- and dual-screen setups, runs with customizable overlays, and responds to hotkeys for easy toggling during gameplay.

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You know what, folks? Sometimes, the best updates are the ones that don’t try too hard. That’s exactly the case with MX Linux 23.6. There’s no nonsense to be found here -- just a strong Linux distribution that continues to get better.

While Microsoft continues to push AI distractions and questionable design changes in Windows 11, MX Linux sticks to what matters: speed, stability, and letting the user stay in control. In fact, MX Linux 23.6 could truly be the Linux distribution of your dreams!

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