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There used to be a time when Linux gaming was a tricky affair, filled with trial and error, obscure fixes, and things randomly breaking. Many gamers used to avoid gaming on the platform due to those issues.

Now? Things have changed dramatically. Tools like Wine, Proton, DXVK, etc. have taken Linux gaming to another level. Bottles is one of those handy tools helping make the experience that much easier for gamers.

Sadly, the project has hit a funding roadblock.

Hard Work Deserves Appreciation

The lead developer behind Bottles, Mirko Brombin, recently shared an update on the project’s current state. He points out that, while Bottles has sponsorships from companies like Linode, JetBrains, and Hyperbit, they are still facing funding shortages that make sustained development difficult.

Despite having over 3 million downloads on Flathub, the project receives only about €100 per month in donations, an amount easily overshadowed by the server costs alone.

That sounds concerning. 🫤

Mirko also brought attention to Bottles Next, a complete rewrite of the app designed to modernize the codebase and improve performance. He said that they are still working on it, and while it’s due sometime in the future, continued support from Bottles users will help the team focus on development and deliver a better product faster.

He further added:

I am actively working to find sponsorships, I am in contact with a possible funding that could allow us to accelerate development, to pay a small bonus to those working on Next, to give some breathing room to those who are contributing. But here too, it takes time. And that’s precisely why today I feel the need to speak openly.

We don’t want to make Wikipedia-style appeals, with the usual “just one euro each.” But it’s right that those who love Bottles know how things really are. If you want to see Next grow, if you want to see Bottles finally become what it’s meant to be, we invite you to consider supporting us. Even just a symbolic donation, even just a monthly subscription, if done by many, can become what we need to take the next step.

If you use Bottles and want to see it grow, even a small donation helps more than you might think. Supporting the project now means faster updates and a better experience down the line.

Donate to Bottles

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Murena, the company behind Linux-powered smartphones and one of the key driving forces behind /e/OS, has introduced a new search engine in partnership with Qwant, the privacy-focused search provider known for its focus on protecting user data and delivering unbiased search results.

Can it join the ranks of the best privacy-oriented search engines? Let’s find out!

Murena Find: What to Expect?

Operating in “no tracking” mode by default, Murena Find is meant to deliver relevant search results without monitoring users’ online activity. It now serves as the default search engine on Murena smartphones running /e/OS 3.0, with a planned rollout on Murena Workspace in the near future.

Of course, Murena Find isn’t limited to Murena devices. I took it for a quick spin myself and was mostly content with the experience. I started with a basic text search of the term "It's FOSS", and it provided me with relevant results like our main page and the news page.

Murena Find All and News search pages.

Next, I searched for the term "Denmark replaces Microsoft" under the News tab. The first result was incorrect, but the following entries were relevant, featuring articles from well-known publications like ZDNet and TechRadar. (My own article didn’t show up, but that’s okay.)

The Shopping tab works as expected, with handy filters on the left and relevant product suggestions in the center of the page. The Settings menu, accessible via the gear icon in the top-right corner, is surprisingly handy.

It includes options to change the interface language, set the search region, filter adult content, switch between light and dark modes, show or hide news on the homepage, and choose whether outgoing links open in a new tab.

Images and Videos search on Murena Find.

📋Evil Larry’s got plans… and they’re not good. 😨

Searching for images and videos is good too. I looked up pics of Evil Larry, and sure enough, there he was, staring right into my soul. The image viewing interface is familiar, with options to visit the source website, share the image, view it fullscreen, or report it to Qwant for removal.

For videos, I searched for the 2025 Honda CBR650R, and I got relevant results, although they were all from YouTube. I then tried "Arch Linux", and the results were similar. It would be nice if Murena or Qwant could include PeerTube results in the mix.

Murena Find vs. Google on uBlock Origin.

To see how it stacks up against Google in terms of trackers, I used uBlock Origin on Firefox to compare the number of trackers detected on each site. As expected, Murena Find was the clear winner, with 9 trackers blocked, while Google had 30, with the count steadily increasing.

During the launch, Gaël Duval, CEO of Murena, had a few words to add:

We created Murena Find to give users a truly private and ethical alternative for web search with better results. By joining forces with Qwant, we’re combining advanced search capabilities with a firm commitment to data protection.

You can read the announcement blog to learn more.

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ONLYOFFICE is one of two options that comes to mind when I think of a solid Microsoft Office alternative on Linux, the other being LibreOffice. Both offer a range of useful features and support a wide range of document formats.

What sets ONLYOFFICE apart, though, is its focus on collaboration and generally reliable compatibility with Microsoft Office files. With the launch of ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0, the office suite now introduces a number of new features.

🆕 ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0: What's New?

At first glance, you will notice that for all the editors, the interface has been redesigned to provide a more intuitive and accessible experience. For taking advantage of this, you have to either enable the "Modern Light" or the "Modern Dark" theme from View ⇾ Interface Theme.

The PDF Editor sees major upgrades aimed at improving productivity. You can now co-edit PDF forms in real time, drag-and-drop pages in the thumbnails panel to quickly reorder a document, and duplicate pages effortlessly with Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V.

AI-powered enhancements also make an appearance with this release, bringing automatic text extraction for PDF files, and smarter automation for macros and formulas in Spreadsheets.

Similarly, the Document Editor gets a few practical upgrades, including a quick-access button for paragraph borders and enhanced Content Controls with improved change tracking and support for custom buttons via plugins.

Automate repetitive tasks – macro creation and VBA conversion – with AI to save time and avoid errors

On the localization front, there’s enhanced support for right-to-left languages, new additions like Urdu language support and an Arabic spellcheck dictionary, plus several tweaks to make language settings more intuitive and user-friendly.

File compatibility has been extended too, now including support for Markdown (.md), Visio (.vsd/.vsdx), OpenDocument Graphics (.odg), and direct editing of Excel Binary (.xlsb) files.

During the launch, Galina Goduhina, Sales Director at ONLYOFFICE, stated that:

With Docs 9.0, our goal was to bring greater ease and functionality to all users, regardless of how or where they work.

📥 Download ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0

If you are self-hosting, then you can grab the necessary packages from the official website. For regular users, the desktop editors for this release will go live shortly.

ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0

You can read the release blog and changelog to learn more about this release.

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Surprisingly, Many Linux Users Don’t Know About This Office SuiteDo you know about ONLYOFFICE? We tell you more about it here.It's FOSSAnkush Das

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Mainstream gaming on Linux has been steadily improving year after year, with better compatibility, performance, and a growing library of supported titles, making it a viable alternative to Windows and console gaming.

In contrast, the emulation scene has been around for much longer within the Linux community, thriving thanks to Linux's openness and DIYbility. There are even dedicated retro gaming distros like Lakka and RetroPie that make setting up and playing classic games on Linux easy.

In this article, we'll be taking a look at RetroArch, a popular emulation frontend available for Linux and many other platforms.

RetroArch: Overview ⭐

Before you think that RetroArch is an emulator, don't. It's actually a frontend that runs emulators through a system of modular components called Libretro cores. Each core handles a specific console or platform, allowing RetroArch to support a wide range of classic systems.

It’s also more than just a game launcher. RetroArch can run media players, game engine ports, and offers features like game rewinding, shaders, and multiplayer support.

⭐ Key Features

Packing a wide range of features that complement gameplay, customization, and compatibility across platforms, RetroArch has the following standout features:

**Cross-platform.****Supports over 200 cores.****Unified settings interface.**Can run media from discs.

🎮 Gaming Experience

On my Bazzite setup, I installed the RetroArch Flatpak and connected an Xbox Wireless controller to try out Freedoom, a free game that plays like classic DOOM. Using the PrBoom core, it ran smoothly without any major issues.

Initially, I had tried using the Steam version of RetroArch, but it was a bit tricky to manually add cores and games since that version doesn’t have the online downloader.

The Online Updater and Core Downloader pages of RetroArch.

I downloaded the PrBoom core using RetroArch’s built-in Online Updater, which offers many cores for playing games from various classic consoles and systems. Using my controller, I easily navigated to the Core Downloader page from the Main Menu to find the core.

The Main Menu and Load Content pages of RetroArch.

After loading the core, I used the Load Content option to open Part 1 of Freedoom by selecting its .wad file that I downloaded earlier. As you can see in the video above, the game ran well. There were some minor stutters, but it didn’t affect gameplay; I was too busy taking down demons.

RetroArch's Input and Recording pages.

For those who like tinkering with their controller input, RetroArch’s Input page offers detailed customization, letting you remap buttons, adjust sensitivity, and set up different profiles for each core or game.

There’s also a Recording page where you can capture gameplay footage easily without needing extra software. (I missed this before I recorded the video.)

RetroArch's Appearance and Drivers pages.

Similarly, the Appearance page allows you to adjust themes, menu styles, and on-screen displays to suit your preferences, while the Drivers page lets you configure hardware settings like video, audio, input, and network interfaces to ensure smooth performance.

During my play session, RetroArch’s full-screen mode bugged out and wouldn’t enter full-screen properly, so I had to stick with windowed mode. There are other cool features I didn’t talk about, like Netplay for online multiplayer, Shaders to improve graphics, and Cheat Code support for games.

⚙️ Installing RetroArch on Linux

RetroArch comes in a bunch of formats, but on Linux, there are two main ways I recommend installing it. The first is to source it via Flathub by running the following command:

flatpak install flathub org.libretro.RetroArch

The second is for Ubuntu users who use snaps. You can grab the latest release from Snapcraft by running this command:

sudo snap install retroarch

You can also get RetroArch via Steam, AppImage, or build it from source. It’s cross-platform, with downloads available directly from the official website for other major systems like Raspberry Pi, Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS.

RetroArch

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For years, Big Tech has been tightening its grip on public institutions across the world, quietly slotting themselves into critical infrastructure that powers the daily running of governments.

Their allergy to privacy and bowing to their overlords (read: the country they're based in) has long been a thing of concern. There have been numerous cases where surveillance laws forced these companies to hand over user data without consulting, or even notifying, the governments of those affected.

For governments, this isn't just a privacy issue, but a sovereignty issue. And in Denmark, the Ministry of Digital Affairs has decided it’s time to push back.

Denmark's Open Source Move

Speaking with Politiken (paywalled), Denmark's Minister for Digital Affairs, Caroline Stage Olsen, revealed that the Ministry is moving away from Microsoft services, replacing Windows with Linux and Office 365 with LibreOffice.

This is set to happen in a staggered manner, where half of the staff will be switched to Linux and LibreOffice by summer (June-August), with full adoption expected by autumn (September-November) this year.

The move is said to be driven primarily by Denmark’s goal to strengthen digital sovereignty, ensuring that control over critical government data and systems remains within national borders.

This approach aligns with broader European efforts to promote open standards and safeguard public digital infrastructure from external influence. Take, for instance, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which is undertaking a similar transition, moving 30,000 government computers from Microsoft software to Linux and LibreOffice.

Speaking about the move on LinkedIn, the minister emphasized that:

It is not about isolation or digital nationalism. We should not turn our backs completely on global technology companies; many of them provide solutions that we benefit from. This applies both today and in the future.

But we must never make ourselves so dependent on so few that we can no longer act freely. Too much public digital infrastructure is currently tied up with very few foreign suppliers. This makes us vulnerable. Also, financially.

📋The above quote was translated from Danish.

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At least in the U.S. and Canada, that is.

This was brought to my attention thanks to a Reddit post where a user (presumably a resident of Canada), had posted how Lenovo was shipping laptops with Fedora and Ubuntu at a cheaper price compared to their Windows-equipped counterparts.

Others then chimed in, saying that Lenovo has been doing this since at least 2020 and that the big price difference shows how ridiculous Windows' pricing is.

Cutting the Windows Tax

When I dug in further, I found out that the US and Canadian websites for Lenovo offered U.S. $140 and CAD $211 off on the same ThinkPad X1 Carbon model when choosing any one of the Linux-based alternatives.

US pricing on left, Canadian pricing on right.

Interestingly, while the difference in pricing is noticeable, your mileage may vary if you are looking for such laptops on the official website. Not all models from their laptop lineup, like ThinkPad, Yoga, Legion, LOQ, etc., feature an option to get Linux pre-installed during the checkout process.

Luckily, there is an easy way to filter through the numerous laptops. Just go to the laptops section (U.S.) on the Lenovo website and turn on the "Operating System" filter under the Filter by specs sidebar menu.

Yes, it's as simple as that. You can do the same for the various official online regional storefronts that Lenovo runs to see whether Linux-based operating systems are being offered on their laptops in your country.

Closing Thoughts

It is good to see that Lenovo is offering Linux in its laptops. In fact, there is another big-name laptop manufacturer, Dell, who also does something similar with its Ubuntu-certified laptops, but both have the same constraint of having limited options for buyers.

Also, as far as I know, Dell doesn't reduce the pricing if you choose Linux instead of Windows. Correct me if I am wrong in the comments.

Nonetheless, I think these manufacturers could do a better job in marketing these Linux-based alternative operating systems to general consumers, showing them how they can save big when opting for these instead of the pricey and bloated Windows.

Otherwise, we might have to start observing Windows Refund Day again.

💬 Your take on this? Would mainstream users benefit from having Linux pre-installed on their laptops?

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