GNOME Shell Extensions are usually sourced from extensions.gnome.org, or "EGO" as the GNOME folks call it. Every submission on this portal is manually reviewed, and that review process has been under strain for months now.
We covered this back in December when GNOME added a rule to its EGO review guidelines rejecting AI-generated slop.
They did allow the use of AI for learning and code completion purposes, but generating the entire extension where the developer can't explain or debug it convincingly was explicitly forbidden.
Months later, and the deluge of AI slop hasn't slowed.
So last week, Javad Rahmatzadeh, the same developer behind that original rule, tried a different approach. Instead of just rejecting bad submissions after the fact, he wrote instructions aimed directly at the AI models generating them.
Making the clankers understand
Given that the review queue is still flooded with AI-generated extensions, and most of them repeat the exact same mistakes (bad practices, as he puts it), Javad's new approach skips the reject-and-explain method entirely.
Most of the guidance is about cleanup. Extensions need to remove timeouts, disconnect signals, and destroy widgets in a specific order inside destroy(). Javad also calls out AI models for adding boolean flags like _destroyed to guard against improper calls, when the instance should just be nulled out and never referenced again after destroy() runs.
Then there's the overengineering. AI models tend to wrap safe function calls in unnecessary error handling and add checks for methods that are guaranteed to exist. Javad traces this back to models trying to write code that works across several GNOME Shell versions at once, and his fix is simple.
Just target one version instead of covering every possible one.
The rest is about keeping code organized. Split logic across multiple files instead of one bloated entry point, keep related functions close together so cleanup is easy to check, and don't submit placeholder code with empty functions just to have something to show for it.
There's a separate rule aimed at the AI models themselves. Any AI-generated extension meant only for personal use has to ship with a comment saying so, telling the person not to upload it to EGO unless they actually understand the code well enough to maintain it. 👇
// Generated with AI for personal use.
// Do NOT upload to extensions.gnome.org (EGO) unless you understand JavaScript
// and can maintain this code.
Some thoughts
Clankers overwhelming open source contributors is not new news. We've seen more than enough by now to conclude that these bots will take the open source ecosystem down if not moderated with a strong hand.
What GNOME's Javad has done here is damage control. He and the other EGO reviewers have an important job. If they get inundated with AI slop that literally doesn't make sense, then that is a big loss for us, the GNOME users who install extensions to improve our desktop experience.
Kitty is a popular terminal emulator that supports many modern features. Focused on power users, it offers a wide range of customization that other terminals often lack.
For example, it includes a functional image display protocol and smooth cursor animations.
I have shown Kitty tweaking in the past, and in the regards, I would like to discuss Kittens today.
Kittens are functional units that extend the features of the Kitty terminal or work as standalone programs. They have direct access to the running Kitty instance.
Kitty comes bundled with several of these kittens, written in Go, which we will explore in detail later. You even have the option to create your own custom Kittens in Python, if you find a specific need that hasn't been solved yet.
Some Cool Default Kittens
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In my opinion, it is important to remember that many kittens are Kitty terminal exclusive. Before you build muscle memory around it, make sure you aren't planning to switch to a different terminal emulator anytime soon.
Themes
Let's start with the most popular tool first. If you use Kitty daily, you have likely come across this utility at some point.
Themes is a kitten that allows you to change your terminal color scheme interactively without editing any configuration files. Kitty includes a wide variety of preset themes that you can access by running a simple command:
kitten themes
Apply themes in Kitty
In the overlay window, you can easily scroll through both dark and light themes to see a live preview. Once you find one you like, just press Enter and follow the prompts to set it as your preferred theme.
💡
Latest versions of Kitty now support automatic theme changes based on your system's dark and light mode. This is a very convenient feature if you want your terminal to stay in sync with your global OS settings.
In my opinion, this is a feature I really miss when using Ghostty. While Ghostty has a similar interface, you still have to manually edit your configuration file to apply the theme name after you pick one.
Fonts
If you have found a new font and want to set it as your terminal choice, this kitten has you covered. You can launch the interactive interface directly in your terminal using a simple command:
kitten choose-fonts
Choose Fonts
This tool allows you to perform several actions within a single interface. You can select new fonts, preview how they look, and even fine-tune specific font faces.
The utility makes it much easier to manage your typography without guessing how a font will appear in your workspace. It handles the complex parts of the setup so you can focus on finding the perfect look.
Choose files
Choose files is a comprehensive file picker designed for Kitty and other GUI applications on your system. It functions similarly to fzf but is specifically optimized for finding and managing files.
Choose Files
This tool offers several powerful features, including the ability to select multiple files at once. It intelligently respects .gitignore rules in your git directories to keep your workflow clean.
To use it, run:
kitten choose-files
You can also select non-existent files to trigger a "save file" option or choose entire directories. In my opinion, this file picker will completely change the way you interact with files in your terminal.
Quick access terminal
If you remember Yakuake in KDE, you are already familiar with the concept of a drop down terminal for quick tasks. Kitty offers similar functionality through the Quick Access Terminal Kitten.
You can launch this feature at any time using a simple command in your terminal:
kitten quick-access-terminal
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Quick Access Terminal
If you want to personalize the experience, you can customize the tool using a specific configuration file. Simply create or edit quick-access-terminal.conf inside your ~/.config/kitty/ directory to adjust its behavior.
GPU accelerated dock panel
The Panel kitten is something truly special. It creates a desktop panel for you that functions much like i3bar.
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Kitten Panel
While some might feel this is a bit overpowered for a terminal application, the panel is quite interesting for minimal use cases. It even allows you to set tools like btop as your actual desktop wallpaper.
In my opinion, this is an incredible feature for anyone who loves a unique workspace. You heard that right, and here is a great example of how it looks in action.
A diff tool
The diff kitten is an excellent tool available directly within Kitty. It offers several advanced features like side-by-side comparisons, syntax highlighting, and even image diffs or recursive directory comparisons.
To use it, you simply pass the file names as shown in the command below:
kitten diff file1 file2
Diff Files
Other interesting Kittens
I use the terminal daily for standard update tasks and editing text files. If you are deeply involved in terminal usage, there are many kittens available for very niche use cases.
For example, the Broadcast kitten allows you to type text simultaneously across multiple Kitty windows. There are also SSH related kittens designed for editing files and even a specialized SSH supported clipboard.
In my opinion, these specific tools are essential for power users who manage remote servers regularly. Feel free to experiment with these options to make your terminal life significantly more productive.
Assign keybindings/alias for quick access
All these kittens can be bound to keyboard shortcuts or aliases so you don't have to manually run the command every time. This makes your workflow much faster by giving you instant access to your favorite actions.
I will show you how I mapped the kittens in my own configuration file. It is a straightforward process that keeps everything organized and easy to access.
The most important step is to make sure your chosen keys are uniquely assigned. You want to avoid any conflicts with existing terminal options or system-wide shortcuts.
In the below code, I mapped the F1 key to get the file chooser kitten in multiple file select mode.
map f1 kitten choose-files --mode=files
Adding the following line to your shell configuration file (~/.bashrc) to add an alias to the diff tool:
alias d="kitten diff"
Now, you can run:
d file1 file2
To get the difference between them.
Another example, let's map the F2 key to get a quick access terminal:
map f2 kitten quick-access-terminal
Wrapping up
So, we have seen how kittens can improve your terminal productivity. While most of these have separate alternatives like fzf for file selection or difftastic for diffs, integrating them directly into your terminal with a clean UI is commendable.
Kitty also offers a desktop-ui kitten that lets you integrate the file picker into all your GUI apps. Since this can cause issues with some applications and is something I use rarely, it remains out of scope for this guide.
In my opinion, the seamless integration of these tools makes Kitty feel much more cohesive than a standard terminal emulator.
Did you find any of these kittens useful enough to replace your existing tools?
Keychron has introduced ZGM, short for Zephyr Gaming Mouse, an open source firmware project built for gaming mice.
It is built on Zephyr RTOS, the same real-time operating system that already powers ZMK for keyboards. In its announcement, Keychron portrayed the launch as a philosophy rather than a marketing angle, stating, "Open source isn't marketing for us. It's the default."
Keyboards have QMK. They have ZMK. Mice have… nothing. 🔒
Every gaming mouse on the market runs firmware you can't read, can't audit, can't change.
So we built it ourselves.
ZGM — Zephyr Gaming Mouse. Open-source firmware for gaming mice, coming Q1 2027. The G6 HE will run… pic.twitter.com/naSdDXeMBh
The firmware is set to debut alongside the Keychron G6 HE, with a launch window sometime between January and March 2027.
The details
ZGM isn't a mouse, and it isn't a driver or third-party tool you install after buying one either. It's firmware that runs directly on a mouse's own hardware, and only devices built with it will run it.
The G6 HE is the first confirmed device, and any wider adoption depends on whether other manufacturers choose to build around it. The project is released under the GPL-3.0 license, so anyone can inspect the code, modify it, or fork it for their own hardware.
Currently, it is in a very early stage of development, where the repository mainly holds project scaffolding and policy files right now. Keychron says firmware sources, board support, and flashing guidance are still being prepared.
The plan is for the project to grow into full Zephyr-based firmware, with configuration layers for different hardware variants and integration for sensors, buttons, scroll wheels, and lighting.
Wired support is expected to arrive first, with wireless support to follow, alongside build instructions, example hardware targets, and testing guidance for latency and reliability.
Want even more?
Just a placeholder pic of the ZGM website.
Keychron plans to support the chips Zephyr already works with, plus the sensors, buttons, scroll wheels, and lighting that go into a gaming mouse. Battery management for wireless builds is part of the plan too.
The roadmap starts where the project is now, then moves to building the actual firmware. After that comes getting buttons, scrolling, and sensors working, followed by basic USB support for wired mice.
Later steps cover different hardware setups, testing for lag and stability, and eventually wireless support and more customization. The peripherals manufacturer says this is just a tentative plan for now, not a fixed schedule.
Keychron already builds keyboards around QMK and is already going towards ZMK. Both firmwares have proven that open source software can deliver deep customization and long-term reliability through years of community development.
And, as mentioned earlier, ZMK already runs on the same Zephyr foundation ZGM uses, which likely shaped Keychron's choice to build on it for their new mouse instead of starting from scratch.
That said, ZGM has a long way to go before it matches either project. QMK and ZMK both carry years of contributions, documentation, and supported hardware, while ZGM's repository only has planning material.
Linux users gain from this
Gaming and productivity mice rarely ship with official Linux support. Most peripheral makers build their configuration software for Windows and macOS only, leaving buttons, DPI stages, and lighting profiles locked behind an app that never gets a Linux release.
Linux users are left relying on community projects that reverse engineer these devices instead, and even then, support only covers whatever protocols someone has bothered to document.
I personally use two Logitech mice, the G502 HERO and a wireless one that comes with the MK470 bundle, and neither has official software support on Linux. Both work fine plugged in directly, but configuring them means turning to third-party tools like Piper or Solaar.
If more manufacturers pivot towards an open solution like ZGM, us Linux users could at least get some QMK-like support (but for mice). Imagine the kind of keybinds and macros you could play around with.
Starling is a new open source Linux desktop environment. One developer built it by directing Claude for about six months, ending up with a working desktop that boots into its own session with a compositor and window manager.
Don't think of this as a themed shell bolted onto GNOME or KDE either. It brings its own X11 server, so apps like Chrome, Slack, and Zoom run on it without requiring any special modifications.
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This is a vibe-coded desktop environment, still an early preview built mostly through AI prompts rather than a full engineering team. Expect bugs, security issues, missing settings, and rough edges throughout.
What is Starling?
Every part of it, like the shell, the compositor, the window manager, and the apps, are written in Swift, a language that has hardly been used for a Linux desktop before.
Most of the heavylifting here has been done using Claude, which was instructed to follow things like "Wayland only. Do not read, modify, or reference X11Server/ or X11 launch paths unless explicitly asked."
Under the hood, the framework running the whole desktop is a full port of Flutter's Dart framework to Swift. Starling brings a Wayland compositor written in C and its own X11 server, so older X11 apps still work.
That combination is what actually makes it a desktop rather than a demo.
For features, it has things like:
A dock and Launchpad (app launcher).
Floating and tiling window management.
A shader-based glass effect on the dock and panels.
Five first-party apps, including Terminal and an apt-powered App Store.
Taking it for a run
I tested Starling on an Ubuntu 26.04 LTS virtual machine, and its rough edges showed up almost immediately. Right after logging in, the resolution defaulted to a non-standard, letterboxed widescreen ratio of 5120x2160 at 2x scaling (according to Fastfetch).
I tried searching for an option to change this in the Settings menu, and the "Displays" page only had a slider for scaling, nothing for resolution itself. Things might be better if you install it on a computer directly, but that's a risk you are more than welcome to take. 🙂↔️
A few smaller things didn't work either. The search bar inside the Launchpad (app launcher) doesn't respond to typing, and none of the accent color swatches in Appearance actually apply once clicked.
The App Store itself works, technically. I installed Chrome through it without any errors, but the browser opened up oversized and ran noticeably laggy once it loaded. Not exactly the experience you'd want from one of the few apps the store puts at the top of its list.
Shutting the system down turned into its own small hunt. There's no power menu anywhere on the desktop, so I had to go into the Terminal and run sudo shutdown to turn it all off.
Early stages of abandonware?
Starling probably won't be the last project like this. If one developer directing an AI can produce a working desktop environment, compositor and all in about six months, expect a lot more attempts over the coming years.
Building something and keeping it alive are two very different jobs. Vibe coding gets you off the ground fast. Debugging what it produces is painfully slow, and that grind is usually what kills a developer's motivation before the project gets anywhere.
Installing Starling
Starling packages as a single DEB, built for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS on amd64. You will have to ensure that you have a Wayland-capable login manager (which the Desktop LTS release ships with).
Next, you have to either log out or reboot, then at the login screen click your name, open the session menu (a small gear icon at the bottom-right), and pick "Starling" from the list.
Mind you, it is quite early for this desktop. Currently on v0.2.1, the project itself is being handled by an anonymous human developer (or maybe AGI 😱?), so I would test it on a spare machine.
Running local AI models has become surprisingly accessible. Install Ollama, pull a model, and you can start chatting with it in minutes. That's exactly how I began my journey with local AI.
Using an LLM directly in terminal is okayish but it limits your ability. That's why there are so many frontends available for Ollama, providing you with a graphical, chatGPT-like interface. This way, you can easily revisit an earlier answer, copy code snippets, or have an extended discussion with a model.
Of the so many GUIs, Open WebUI is like the de facto Ollama front-end. I don't know about you but I find it difficult to set up.
I also looked at options like LibreChat, AnythingLLM, and LobeChat. They all felt geared toward users who wanted an all-in-one AI platform rather than a lightweight companion for a local Ollama UI.
This is the 'problem' that I think OrionChat solves...by its simplicity.
OrionChat: Web-based chat interface for Local LLMs
OrionChat is a free, open-source, web-based chat interface. It isn't built exclusively for Ollama. Instead, it can also talk to OpenAI, Google Gemini, Claude, Groq, Cerebras, and a few other providers.
But for this piece, I only care about one thing: how well it works as a front end for models running locally through Ollama.
It doesn't attempt to become an entire AI platform, no automation, agents, scheduled tasks. Instead, it provides a clean chat interface, model selection, and a responsive interface.
Once the models are downloaded, OrionChat simply detects them. I particularly liked this design because it doesn't introduce another layer of model management.
Installing OrionChat
Getting OrionChat running took me less than five minutes. There's no need to even run a Docker daemon.
Step 1: Clone the repository
Clone and move into the project folder.
git clone https://github.com/EliasPereirah/OrionChat.git
cd OrionChat
Step 2: Serve the files
Python makes this trivial if you already have it installed, which most Linux systems do:
python -m http.server
Step 3: Open OrionChat
Head to http://localhost:8000 in your browser. OrionChat's interface should load right away.
Letting Ollama talk to OrionChat
This is the part I actually got stuck on the first time. By default, Ollama only accepts requests from its own trusted origins, and a browser-based frontend like OrionChat doesn't automatically qualify. Every request gets silently blocked until you explicitly allow it.
Step 1: Check how you're running Ollama
If you installed Ollama via the official install script, it's almost certainly running as a systemd service. If you just launch it manually with ollama serve, skip to Step 3.
Step 2: Edit the Ollama service
You need to add the origin override to ollama.service systemd unit file.
sudo systemctl edit ollama.service
In the editor that opens, add this under the [Service] section:
Skip the systemd steps entirely and just set the variable inline when you launch it:
OLLAMA_ORIGINS=http://localhost ollama serve
Step 4: Confirm it worked
Refresh the OrionChat tab in your browser. It should now connect to Ollama and start listing your locally installed models. You can choose your default Ollama model and start prompting.
It provides an option to upload files and to use the microphone with Ollama models. This is a really nice feature you can't use in CLI mode.
My wxperience running Ollama models with OrionChat
Want to go from Gemma to Qwen? A couple of clicks. Want to try Mistral instead? Select it and keep going. For someone who regularly experiments with different models, this alone is worth the five-minute setup.
Starting a conversation feels exactly like using any modern AI chatbot. Code blocks render properly. Markdown formatting looks clean. Tables show up as tables instead of a mess of pipe characters. Long conversations stay easy to navigate because everything lives in an actual interface instead of a scrolling terminal buffer.
Copying responses feels natural too, no highlighting text in a terminal and fighting with line wrapping. For anyone who asks a lot of questions to local LLMs, that alone noticeably improves the day-to-day experience.
Also, unlike other Ollama UI alternatives, OrionChat is not an Electron wrapper hiding a browser inside your app menu. It lives in a web browser ;)
Final Thoughts
Ollama already made running local models easy, and for quick tests, the terminal is perfectly adequate. But if you're talking to local models for hours every week, a proper interface makes a real difference.
OrionChat hits a sweet spot for me. It doesn't require a complicated deployment, and doesn't try to become an all-in-one AI platform. It focuses on doing one thing well: giving Ollama a pleasant place to live outside the terminal.
After using it for a while, I found myself opening OrionChat first and reaching for the CLI only when managing or updating models themselves.
If you've been relying purely on the Ollama CLI and occasionally wish it felt a bit more like ChatGPT, OrionChat is worth the five minutes it takes to try.
If OrionChat isn't quite your fit, Open WebUI, Enchanted, Chatbox, LibreChat, and NextChat are all solid alternative Ollama frontends, each trading off simplicity against features differently. Worth trying a couple to see which matches your workflow.
Open source projects have mostly split into two camps on AI. Some keep a human in the loop, letting contributors use whatever tools they want as long as they take responsibility for the result.
Others have gone further and banned AI-generated contributions outright, no matter who reviews them. GCC has now weighed in, and it's leaning toward the stricter camp.
It's the compiler at the heart of building software across GNU and Linux systems, so its stance on AI carries weight well beyond its own repository. The GCC Steering Committee has decided to decline what it calls "legally significant" contributions made with AI, a term we will be unpacking shortly.
AI begone?
Well yes, and no. The GCC Steering Committee has inducted a new AI policy built around one core rule. If a contribution is legally significant and any part of it traces back to an LLM, GCC won't take it.
By that, they mean what the GNU maintainer guidelines define as being legally significant, which is around 15 lines of code or text, the point where copyright actually applies. Smaller edits don't count on their own, but enough of them from the same person can still add up to it.
There's some leeway for a certain use case, though. GCC maintainers can still accept legally insignificant AI-generated contributions, as long as they're clearly marked and meet the project's usual contribution standards.
Test cases are exempted too. Even ones that would normally count as legally significant can still be AI-generated. The policy itself only covers GCC. Any code imported from other projects for convenience or dependency satisfaction falls outside its scope.
None of this touches how contributors use AI on their own time. Screen readers, translation tools, spelling and grammar help, research, bug hunting, and patch review are all fair game, provided the actual output submitted to GCC isn't AI-generated itself.
The GCC Steering Committee expects the policy to keep evolving, shaped by community feedback and wherever the wider GNU Project lands on AI overall. The next review is set for the start of 2027.
A growing trend
Codeberg took the dramatic route last week, where its members voted 358 to 144 to ban projects built mostly from AI-generated code and to formally rule out training AI models on user data or code.
They blame server strain from AI crawlers, climbing hardware costs, and a growing pile of low-effort AI-generated contributions as the driving forces behind the decision.
LLVM went the other way at the start of this year, adopting a "human in the loop" policy. Here, contributors can use any AI tool they like, but they have to disclose which one, answer questions about their submissions, and take full responsibility for the result.
GCC's policy lands closer to Codeberg's without going as far as an outright ban. Test cases keep a narrow opening that Codeberg's rules don't, and GCC still allows small, clearly marked AI contributions that Codeberg's project-level ban wouldn't.
GOG built its whole brand around selling DRM-free games and providing offline installers that work without requiring an internet connection or any kind of verification from their side.
They even encourage people to download installers and copy them over to physical media like discs, and treat the copy as theirs. This is something the big players in the space, Steam and Epic Games, just cannot do, since both keep your library tethered to their clients.
And don't even get me started on account standing. If you break their rules, they retain the right to suspend your account or, worse, ban it outright, leaving you locked out of your own games.
GOG GALAXY is the company's optional client that does the things one would expect from such an application. It handles auto-updates, cloud saves, achievement tracking, rollbacks for when a patch breaks your save, and pulls in game libraries from other platforms.
Sadly, none of that has ever officially arrived on Linux, as the client is only offered for Windows and macOS. Linux gamers who want it on their systems have to run the Windows client through compatibility layers like Bottles or Lutris instead of installing it directly.
What you see when you visit the GOG GALAXY website from a Linux computer.
All's not gloom though, as it has now been confirmed that a Linux build of GOG GALAXY is coming. Speaking to Liam from GamingOnLinux, the joint CEO of GOG, Krzysztof Papliński, stated that they already have a "specialist on board," and are looking for the "best way to approach Linux support."
Before you get too excited, know that there's no release window mentioned in the original email reply by Krzysztof, who notes that:
This is a significant undertaking, so while we’re not ready to share any specific plans, timelines, or results just yet, it’s very much an area we’re investing time and effort into.
Some context
This isn't appearing out of nowhere. Late last year, GOG became an independent company after CD Projekt sold it to co-founder Michał Kiciński, ending its run as a subsidiary.
A few days later, in January, Michał told PC Gamer that Windows is "poor-quality software" and that he isn't surprised people are gravitating away from the ecosystem altogether.
In the same interview, managing director Maciej Gołębiewski said Linux was already one of the things GOG had put in its strategy for the year.
Around the same time, a new job listing went up, looking for a senior software engineer, with the description referring to Linux as the next major frontier for the platform.
This is great news
Placeholder image of the Windows client for GOG GALAXY.
A native GOG GALAXY client would finally let Linux gamers manage their GOG library the same way Windows and Mac users already do. Though I am not sure if any other game platforms will be supported.
But despite that, gamers will still get to take advantage of a well-equipped launcher that handles large game libraries with ease. Which is supplemented by handy conveniences like auto-updates, cloud saves, syncing between multiple devices, and staying connected with your friends.
This matters more than you might think, btw. Nowadays, digital storefronts are the ones who have the final say over what stays in your library and what doesn't. The recent delisting of Xbox games showed us that quite clearly.
Physical media is going away too, as Sony, for instance, recently confirmed it will stop producing game discs for new PlayStation titles starting January 2028, pushing new releases into digital-only territory.
GOG's DRM-free installers and the optional client that lets you download those eliminate both problems. Since nothing phones home to check a license, copying those installers onto a USB drive or burning them to a Blu-ray or DVD is enough to keep a library playable long after the storefront disappears.
