Table of contents for February 2026 in Linux Magazine

Dear Reader, The term “vendor lock-in” has been in common parlance for as long as I’ve been working on this magazine. The term, which became popular during the imperial Microsoft era as a way of calling out monopolistic practices of Microsoft and other vendors, refers to the tendency of powerful companies to trap users on their platforms by denying them the tools and interfaces they need to interoperate with other platforms. We associate the practice with Microsoft, but the Redmond FUD slingers stood on the shoulders of a giant called IBM, perhaps the biggest lock-in artist in the storied history of the computer industry. We don’t talk about vendor lock-in as much as we used to, but everyone knows it is still out there, operating in evermore subtle ways to…

Prior to the end of Windows 10, a lot of Linux distributions (and members of the open source community) were pushing the open source operating system for those with machines that weren’t upgradable to Windows 11. The push was serious and everywhere. Many assumed it would fail, but one distribution proved that was not the case. The distribution in question was Zorin OS, and it enjoyed over a million downloads in just over a month. What is even more telling is that over 78 percent of those downloads came from Windows machines (https://blog.zorin.com/2025/11/18/test-the-upgrade-from-zorin-os-17-to-18-and-celebrating-1-million-downloads-of-zorin-os-18). That’s not just Linux users going about the usual distro hopping; this is Windows users downloading an alternative OS. Of course, this broke all Zorin OS download records to date. Now, most distributions don’t share their download…

When you see the word Libre attached to a Linux distribution, you automatically know what it’s all about: freedom. There are several Linux distributions with that moniker, and each of them shuns software that isn’t open source. The Debian team decided to jump into that particular fray with Debian Libre Live. Debian has been including non-free software for a few years now, which comes by way of firmware to ensure users get the best out-of-the-box experience. Of course, there’s a large subcommunity within the Linux world that doesn’t want proprietary software on their desktops. The Debian team understands the need for freedom and has created this new take. The official site for Debian Libre Live (https://libre.debian.net/) states, “One advantage of Debian Libre Live Images is that you do not need…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way we interact with the Linux terminal. Google’s Gemini command-line interface (CLI) [1], an AI agent, brings the power of Gemini to the command line. Gemini CLI crawls your code trying to understand its logic and then shows you how to improve your code. In this article, I’ll show you how to install Gemini CLI on a Ubuntu 22.04 system. I’ll then use Gemini CLI to write, debug, and test my code based on my daily workflow to help you understand the process. Prerequisites and System Preparation To onboard Gemini CLI on an Ubuntu machine, you will need to install Node. js v20 or higher (as of October 2025), because Gemini CLI uses Node Package Manager (npm) for installation. I have Ubuntu 22.04 installed…

No matter whether you use Quicken, Mint, or the more open-friendly (but commercial) You Need A Budget (YNAB), the path to financial success relies on you keeping a close eye on your income and expenses. I already touched on this topic in a previous column [1], where I looked at a terminal UI in Go for checking my current financial reserve levels. In this issue, the focus shifts to evaluating where I spend my hard-earned cash and on what. Because YNAB portrays itself as open, it also lets you export (Figure 1) all the data you have entered to date in CSV format (Figure 2). In the year and a half that I have been using YNAB, I have accumulated a total of 1,976 entries (Figure 3) – a gold…

Tracking Planes Above Your House with ADS-B If a plane is flying above your house, do you ever wonder about its origin and destination? While there are many websites that provide this information (see Figure 1 for an example), you don’t actually need them. In many countries around the world, various aircraft types (primarily commercial passenger carriers) are required to be equipped with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transmitter. ADS-B provides air traffic controllers with more information about the aircraft than what radar can offer. With a simple antenna and an RTL-SDR USB dongle, anyone can capture these signals and process them on a computer. ADS-B works automatically, broadcasting the flight state periodically without input from the pilot or air traffic controller. Typically, the aircraft transmits its position, altitude, and…

For many Linux users, especially those coming from Debian-based distributions, package management is synonymous with the Advanced Package Tool (APT) system. While modern software centers and command-line tools such as apt and dpkg dominate the landscape, Synaptic Package Manager is a reliable and feature-rich graphical front end for APT. Despite its somewhat old-school interface, Synaptic provides a level of control and transparency that newer app stores often lack. It allows users to search for packages, manage dependencies, lock versions, and troubleshoot installation issues, all with a graphical interface that balances usability and depth. In this article, I will explore Synaptic’s features, its advantages over modern alternatives, and why it continues to be a valuable tool for system administrators, power users, and even beginners looking for a robust way to manage…

Two New Distros Adopt Enlightenment I remember using the Enlightenment desktop many years ago. It was beautiful, highly flexible, and fun. Since then, Enlightenment has been mostly relegated to the shadows by way of niche distributions including Bodhi Linux, which forked Enlightenment and named it Moksha. Moksha is a concept in various Indian religions, particularly Hinduism; it means emancipation or liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. When the Bodhi developers decided to fork Enlightenment, the name seemed appropriate. For years, Bodhi was one of the very few distributions that used anything based on Enlightenment. That period of loneliness is officially over, with MX Moksha and AV Linux 25. MX Moksha doesn’t replace the original MX Linux. Instead, it will serve as an “official spin” of the distribution. There…

TUXEDO Computers recently announced (https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Discontinuation-of-ARM-notebooks-with-Snapdragon-X-Elite-SoC.tuxedo) it was scrapping its plans for a new laptop built around the Snapdragon X Elite (X1E) SoC. According to the announcement, the “first-generation X1E proved to be less suitable for Linux than expected.” In particular, TUXEDO Computers pointed to long battery runtimes. Battery life is typically a strong point of ARM devices, but the company was unable to achieve the hoped-for results. On top of that, high USB 4 transfer rates, BIOS updates, fan controllers, and virtualization with KVM are either missing at this point or not foreseeable for the current model. Another reason for backing out of this is that, essentially, TUXEDO Computers would be releasing a laptop with a CPU that was more than two years old, with the X2 Elite (X2E) introduced…

In what could wind up being the best news for Linux in a long time, Valve has announced the pending release of Steam Machine (https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steam_hardware/announcements/detail/578276333072679813). This new gaming device will make it even easier for users to play Steam games using Linux. Gamers won’t need Linux skills to enjoy the new gaming console, which means Linux adoption could be set to skyrocket. One of the reasons for this is that Steam Machine will not only serve as a gaming console, but also as a regular PC. By leveraging the KDE Plasma desktop environment, users will find Steam Machine very easy to use as a desktop PC, which could also have the effect of easing even more users away from Windows and toward Linux. Along with Steam Machine, Valve is also…

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Keyboard fans love working at the command line: The shell carries out your commands without any compromises. Only if you enter incorrect information does it let you know its dissatisfaction, but it even does that in an extremely courteous way. Whether Bash, Dash, zsh, or ksh, the shell initially processes inputs as character strings, making it perfect for most tasks. When it comes to interpreting the input, the command line sometimes needs a little help since it cannot guess on its own when it needs to evaluate input as numeric. Read on to learn how to tell the shell to do this. The use cases mostly relate to admin and statistics and often involve evaluating logfiles, say for failed login attempts, network statistics, or memory usage. Although there are specialist…

Linux Magazine is your guide to the world of Linux. Monthly issues are packed with advanced technical articles and tutorials you won't find anywhere else. Explore our full catalog of back issues for specific topics or to complete your collection. Order online: https://bit.ly/Linux-Magazine-Library #302/Januay 2026 Indie Gaming The big mainstream game vendors have gotten better at supporting Linux in recent years, but independent, open source games still play an important role in the FOSS community. This month we show you some of the best-loved indie games. On the DVD: Lubuntu 25.10 Desktop and Fedora 43 Workstation #301/December 2025 Cron vs. Systemd Timers You’ve been automating with cron for years, but is this the time to break old habits? Systemd offers additional options for setting timers, and it really isn’t as complicated…

Available Starting February 13 Yes, you can bring your music with you to the Free Software universe. Next month we take a look at the Funkwhale open source music platform and the Navidrome self-hosted music server. Also inside: • Attacking Website Apps • argparse Python Library • Cloud Data Encryption with Cryptomator • Locking down Linux with auditctl, UFW, and Fail2ban • And much more! Please note: Articles could change before the next issue. BE THE FIRST TO SEE WHAT’S NEXT The Linux Magazine Preview is a monthly email newsletter that gives you a sneak peek at the next issue, including links to articles posted online. Sign up at: https://bit.ly/Linux-Update…

The rolling release Solus Linux has a new version out, and it includes all the usual upgrades to many bits and pieces. Key upgrades include the latest versions of Budgie (10.9.4), Gnome (49.1), KDE Plasma (6.5.3), and Xfce (4.20). You also get kernel 6.17, Mozilla Firefox 145, LibreOffice 25.2.6, and Mozilla Thunderbird 140.5. Other updates include Mesa, GIRepository, and systemd. There are also two removals of note. First, the Gnome version of Solus is now Wayland-only, which means X11 doesn’t even ship with the ISO. That is not the case with the other desktops, because they have yet to make the permanent switch. Additionally, Python 2 has finally been removed. There’s also a new repository called Polaris that, according to the official release notes (https://getsol.us/2025/11/29/solus-4-8-released/), “unlocked our ability to remove…

Linux Magazine www.linux-magazine.com ADMIN Online http://www.admin-magazine.com/ Fishing with Remora • Jeff Layton Timing techniques and system-level monitoring tools like Remora provide insight into application behavior and how applications interact with system resources. The New Sudo Logging Format • Thorsten Scherf We present an example that shows how syslog-ng uses the new logging format of the sudo tool to process sudo messages. Designing a Secure Active Directory • Evgenij Smirnov Active Directory can be particularly problematic in terms of security. We look at how to make it more secure through design, rigorous hardening, and security-conscious management. Password Best Practices • Mark Heitbrink We take a look at passwords, passkeys, and passphrases and offer recommendations for team-capable password management.…

Back in 2010, ADMIN (https://www.admin-magazine.com/) was dreamed up as a publication with a focus on system administration. Now, 15 years later, it’s still going strong. In this era of all-digital publishing, that is a major accomplishment. To give you some perspective, in the first issue of ADMIN, Ken Hess wrote a piece about OpenSolaris Zones. On that topic, Hess says, “that’s a funny, wonderful thing about technology – a 15-year-old article can still be relevant, or one that someone published a month ago can be outdated. Zones, jails, and containers, which are all implementations of the same concept, have found new relevance in contemporary IT shops.” Hess also mentions how “certain technology solutions haven’t evolved much” over the years, as the fundamental needs are still the same, especially with regard…

Authentication Options My husband recently asked me about multifactor authentication and hardware security keys. He had read about thieves looking over the shoulder of someone using an Apple iPhone, watching while they typed in their six-digit security code, and then stealing their iPhone and (using the code) gaining access to all of the information on their phone. Unfortunately this information also included their Apple ID, which gave the criminal access to all of their Apple devices and even their credit cards and bank accounts. Most people today understand the concept of a password for their account. The password combined with your username is the first level of authentication. A short password is not only easier to guess and easier to “brute force” (i.e., generate via computer), but easier to remember…

Sparkling gems and new releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software Looking for FOSS in All the Wrong Places I recently stumbled across a news story on It’s FOSS claiming that Flathub is currently ranking on Google for Pornhub downloads. The official web-based store for Flatpak packages is a boon to Linux users everywhere because of how easy it makes installing new programs on popular distros such as Linux Mint. I, myself, love the New section when trying to find exciting new programs to discuss for FOSSPicks. Unfortunately, it seems an unscrupulous developer is behind this unwanted publicity, posting downloader applications on Flathub. Aside from sharing the same creator, these three programs all had tags containing NSFW terms and were proprietary software. This rather cynical attempt to…

Users, developers, and vendors meet at Linux events around the world. We at Linux Magazine are proud to sponsor the Featured Events shown here. For other events near you, check our extensive events calendar online at https://www.linux-magazine.com/events. If you know of another Linux event you would like us to add to our calendar, please send a message with all the details to info@linux-magazine.com. SCaLE 23x Date: March 5-8, 2026 Location: Pasadena, California Website: https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x SCALE is North America’s largest community-run open source conference and will return to the Pasadena Convention Center March 5 - 8, 2026. Join us for four days of sessions, workshops, and community activities focused on open source, security, DevOps, cloud native, and more. FOSS Backstage Date: March 16-17, 2026 Location: Berlin, Germany Website: https://26.foss-backstage.de/ The 8th edition of…