FOSSPicks
FOSSPicks
![](/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/issues/2024/284/fosspicks/drake_nate.png/841390-1-eng-US/Drake_Nate.png_medium.png)
This is Nate's first time writing FOSSPicks after Graham passed on the baton. On behalf of all at Linux Magazine, we're eternally grateful for Graham's years of spotting the top FOSS picks. This month Nate looks at Audacity, Endless Sky, GCompris, Switcheroo, MS-DOS, Qemu, and more!
Audio editor
Audacity
When Graham reviewed the Tenacity fork of the popular audio editor Audacity last year, he touched on Audacity's acquisition by Muse Group in 2021. Controversy was sparked when a draft proposal was introduced to the code for opt-in telemetry to record app usage, leading to accusations that Audacity had become spyware. Muse quickly backpedaled but managed to provoke yet another backlash over changes to the Audacity policy that would have allowed the company to share customer data with the head office in Russia and US legal counsel. The FOSS Post team also published a damning indictment of the new terms and conditions in November 2022, claiming that unhashed IP addresses were being stored temporarily on Audacity servers. They also cited a provision which stated that Audacity wasn't permitted for users under 13, which technically would be a violation of the GPL.
Nevertheless, Audacity remains nominally open source software under GPLv2, as well as one of the most popular audio editors for Linux. It's drawn praise in particular for its simple interface, as well as its extensibility via various plugins. The editor remains available for download in most Linux repositories. However, for the most recent version at the time of writing (3.5.1), users need to visit the main site to download an AppImage. The release notes correctly state that more modern versions of Linux – like our Ubuntu 24.04 test machine – will need to install libfuse2 in order to launch the editor.
After the controversy of Muse Group's data collection practices, Linux users may prefer to use Audacity entirely offline. Still, doing so will cause them to miss out on the latest "cloud save" feature, which allows uploading of projects to audio.com via a linked account. The Audacity Support pages note this should make collaborating, sharing and restoring previous versions of projects much simpler.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.