Linux has reached an all-time high market share of 2.69% in the latest Steam Survey. Also, CachyOS has found itself a spot in Linux-specific desktop market share in Steam Survey.
💬 Let's see what else you get in this edition
Ubuntu keyboard shortcuts.
The World Bank open sourcing a tool.
Swiss privacy debacle.
Obsidian plugins suggestion.
And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!
This edition of FOSS Weekly is supported byANY.RUN.
🌟 OtterCookie: New Malware from North Korea Targets Tech and Finance Professionals
Lazarus Group is currently distributing a stealer malware in fake job offer attacks. Here's how it goes:
Lure via LinkedIn: Attackers offer freelance work to fix a minor DApp bug.
Triggered Failure: An intentional app error fetches and executes malicious code from external API
Malware Execution: OtterCookie infects the system, stealing victims' browser data and crypto wallets.
Desktop Linux is mostly neglected by the industry but loved by the community. For the past 12 years, It's FOSS has been helping people use Linux on their personal computers. And we are now facing the existential threat from AI models stealing our content.
If you like what we do and would love to support our work, please become It's FOSS Plus member. It costs $24 a year (less than the cost of a burger meal each month) and you get an ad-free reading experience with the satisfaction of helping the desktop Linux community.
In VirtualBox, you can send keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+ALT+DEL to logout, and a bunch of other keyboard shortcuts to the guest (the virtual machine), without affecting the host (your computer).
To send CTRL+ALT+DEL, use Host+Delete. The Host key is usually the Right CTRL key on a keyboard. In the top menu, go to Input ⇾ Keyboard → Keyboard Settings to view and customize additional keyboard shortcuts for interacting with the virtual machine.
If you need more input options, you can use the Input ⇾ Keyboard → Soft Keyboard menu to open a virtual keyboard for the guest VM.
🤣 Meme of the Week
Linux users, together, strong! 🤜🤛
🗓️ Tech Trivia
Before Spotify or iTunes, there was Napster. Launched on June 1, 1999, by 18-year-old Shawn Fanning, who built it in his college dorm room, Napster quickly attracted over 20 million users (and viruses).
🧑🤝🧑 FOSSverse Corner
One of our regular FOSSers, Laura, is looking to compare notes on building Linux and open source software from source.
In an earlier article, I wrote about using plugins in Obsidian. In this one, let me share a few of my favorite plugins. I recommend them but only use the ones that fit your needs.
Just to recall, Obsidian has two kinds of plugins:
Core plugins: Officially developed and maintained by the Obsidian team.
Community Plugins: Created by users in the Obsidian community
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Note that some plugins may make your Markdown notes fully readable only in Obsidian as they add extra features that are not available in usual Markdown. This can be a vendor lock in. Use plugins only according to your needs.
Essential Core Plugins
At the time of writing this article, I see 28 core plugins in my Obsidian installation.
I have picked only a handful of them. It doesn't mean others are not good. All core plugins have some use case for a particular set of users!
Several of the plugins I discuss here are enabled by default. But these plugins have settings of their own and I share these settings that have enhanced my note management experience in Obsidian.
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Non-FOSS Warning! Obsidian is not an open source software but it is loved and used by many open source developers and Linux users.
Backlinks
The backlinks are among Obsidian's greatest features. It is crucial for managing interconnected notes and data.
I know that the backlink plugin is enabled by default but there is a useful feature that you'll have to manually enable. It is “Show backlinks at the bottom of notes” option.
Enable it by going to Backlinks plugin settings.
Enable backlinks
Now, under each note, backlinks will be shown.
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Backlinks in Obsidian
It is particularly useful if you are creating new notes from a single place like Daily Notes, which is our next plugin!
Daily Notes
Daily Notes is like diary pages. It will create a Markdown page for each day and you can write your thoughts here.
By default, you can access the daily notes from the Obsidian ribbon menu. But a more efficient way is to open daily notes whenever you open Obsidian.
Go to the Daily Notes settings. Here, enable the "Open daily note on startup" toggle button.
Daily Notes Settings
In the screenshot above, you can see some other settings have been changed.
Date Format: How the title of the daily note appear. You can get the date format options here.
New file location: I have created a separate folder called Journals in my Obsidian vault to store all the daily notes.
Page Preview
This is enabled by default for you. With this plugin, you can hover over a note while pressing the CTRL key to get a preview.
You can also quickly edit the note in the preview or go to another sub-preview, etc. Very useful tool if you are deep into note interlinking.
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Preview page in Obsidian
Slash Commands
This plugin is disabled by default. Go to the Core Plugins in Obsidian settings and enable this plugin.
Once enabled, you can press the / key when typing a note to access commands. For example, insert attachment, insert code block, etc. A simple preview is shown in the below video.
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Slash command in Obsidian
Notion, Ghost and many modern editors use this feature.|
Web Viewer
This is a cool plugin that allows you to visit web links from within Obsidian. More than that, you can save a website to vault using this core plugin.
It is not enabled by default, so do that first. Once enabled, click on the settings gear adjacent to the plugin to go to the plugin settings.
Web viewer settings button
Here, you can set further options like where to save the page by default, search engine, etc.
Web Viewer Settings
You can see some examples in the video below.
Web viewer in Obsidian
Interesting community plugins I like
Now, let's take a look at some cool community plugins that can enhance your knowledge base, as they do for me.
Calendar
If you are a daily notes writer, this is a must-have plugin. Even if you are not into diary writing, it is still pretty cool to have a calendar placed on Obsidian.
Calendar View
You can visit notes of any date simply by clicking on that date. If there is no note, it will prompt you to create one!
There are many more features that you can explore, like a meter to track how much you have written on a particular day.
💡
If you press CTRL key and hover over a date, those day's notes will be shown in a preview.
QuickAdd is a much needed automation tool in Obsidian. It offers features like templates, captures, macros, multis, etc. which essentially allow users to create notes quickly.
For example, the template feature can create a note based on a given template in a specified directory. All you have to do is invoke the command.
The screenshot below shows three templates created by me for my use cases.
Created Templates
Use the settings gear to change additional settings like where to create a note, open the note automatically, etc.
The video below shows how it quickly creates a note on a specified location.
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QuickAdd Working
With macros, you can even assign key bindings to make your workflow even faster!
These are two different plugins which, when used together, are a great way to add callouts.
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If you are not aware, callout blocks can improve your notes by making specific visually separated blocks for tips, warnings, etc. Like this 'note' callout block I used for telling you about callouts.
By default, obsidian has some callouts like Note, Tips, Warnings, etc.
Callout Manager allows you to create more callout blocks. Say you want to create a new callout block called "Read Later" and assign a particular color and icon. You can do that with this plugin.
Callout blocks from Callout Manager
The Callout Suggestions plugins will help you access these defined callout blocks easily in your notes.
You can press >! and a dropdown menu will appear asking what block to use.
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Inserting Callouts in Obsidian
PDF++
Annotating a PDF document is a must-have feature in any PDF viewer. How about doing it in Obsidian? PDF++ is a great tool for this purpose.
You can add your PDF notes to your vault and start annotating!
Once the plugin is installed and enabled, make sure you have enabled the PDF editing feature.
PDF++ plugin settings
Now, you can select text and then right-click to get the annotation menu. Unlike other plugins, this has a slight learning curve and plenty of options to tweak. Use it carefully.
This is for those who want to create notes without grammatical errors or spelling mistakes.
LanguageTool is a proofreading software that checks the grammar, style, and spelling in over 20 languages. With this plugin, you can get error notifications for your text in Obsidian.
If you have a premium subscription for LanguageTool, you can use it here as well.
Spell check in Obsidian
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You should disable the Obsidian spell check (Settings → Editor → Behavior → Spell Check) feature if you want to use this plugin.
Excalidraw is a plugin to edit and view Excalidraw drawings in Obsidian. This sketching solution can make wonderful diagrams within Obsidian, embed drawings into your documents and much more.
An Excalidraw drawing in Obsidian
You can find a huge list of settings for this plugin in the Obsidian settings. If you are into creative note-taking, look no further.
Style Settings: Allows you to tweak several themes in Obsidian. One such theme that I am using and is heavily customizable is Border.
Git: Allows you to version control your notes. You can pull changes from and push changes to GitHub, GitLab, etc.
Dataview: Dataview is a live index and query engine over your personal knowledge base. You can query data from your Obsidian vault.
QuickAdd: QuickAdd is like a super-smart shortcut button in Obsidian that lets you quickly create new notes or add stuff to existing ones using pre-made templates and automated steps you set up.
Kanban: This plugins created a Markdown-based Kanban board.
There are many other plugins, enabled/disabled in a default Obsidian installation. What I mentioned above are a couple of special ones. Don't forget to read the descriptions and try others too.
Now I let you share your favorite Obsidian plugin in the comments.
Most educational programs keep students trapped behind screens, manipulating virtual objects and producing digital outputs.
This is why the Raspberry Pi and Arduino like devices provide such a great learning environment. Adding hardware components to the board gives meaning to the software.
The CrowPi takes this forward by giving an entire learning laboratory that transforms abstract programming concepts into tangible, interactive experiences.
Elecrow has been known for creating great Raspberry Pi products. They are launching their latest product, CrowPi 3. They sent me the device to test and share the experience and that's what I am going to do in this article.
What is CrowPi 3?
Think of the CrowPi 3 as a Swiss Army knife for coding education - it packs dozens of sensors, programming environments, and learning tools into one portable, briefcase. Instead of juggling separate breadboards, sensors, and computers, everything lives in a single ecosystem.
The CrowPi 3 transforms abstract programming concepts into tangible experiences. Write Python code to detect motion → PIR sensor triggers alarm. Code an NFC reader → tap a card to spawn TNT blocks in Minecraft. It's programming with immediate, visible consequences.
The core components are:
Raspberry Pi 5 as the brain of the kit (advance kit includes the pi)
20+ sensors pre-wired and ready
4.3" touchscreen + HDMI connections for external monitors
Built-in breadboards and GPIO access
Arduino and Pi Pico can be attached on top of it
128 GB micro SD card with custom operating system
This custom operating system is a customized version of Raspbian OS and has numerous ready-to-explore projects across multiple programming environments like Python, Scratch etc.
A dedicated section of AI projects to try beginner level AI projects using the on-board camera and various sensors.
No prizes for guessing that there were at least two more such CrowPi kits in the past and considering the fact that this is the third such inastallment, I would think that the first two devices met with success.
Who is this kit for?
The primary audience for CrowPi 3 is children aged 8-16 who are learning programming and AI coding fundamentals.
Of course, it is not just limited to children. People new to Raspberry Pi/Arduino would also benefit from the guided experiences of such a kit.
I also think that it is suitable for teachers that need turnkey STEM curriculum tools.
The kit has streamlined learning of all levels with a mix of both software and hardware. Start with drag-drop Scratch blocks, graduate to Python sensor control, eventually tackle more intense AI projects.
But all this can be assembled...
Sure, you may not need or use all of the sensors provided in the kit. And yes, you can get the sensors and accessories separately and use them with tons of open source projects available online but kits like CrowPi, make it all streamlined. This is ideal for schools and for people who want to explore programming the hardware devices without struggling with the hardware assembly.
Hardware assembly could be fun, too, but it could be frustrating and time-consuming. These kits flatten the learning curve a little, letting the students enjoy dipping their toes in the vast ocean of electronic geekery.
CrowPi 3 Kit contents
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The kit I received for this review is the basic one. The advanced kit comes with a Raspberry Pi 5 16 GB already fixed in, batteries for extra portability, an additional SD card with retro games on it, game controllers and a few more accessories.
The basic kit has the following item in addition to the pre-wired ones on the board already:
Power Supply x1
Screwdriver x1
Stepped Motor x1
Infrared Receiver Head x1
RFID Card + Tag x1
IR Remote Control x1
User Manual x1
Motor + Fan Blade x1
USB A to Micro B Cable x1
Type-C to Type-C Cable x1
NFC Card x1
TF Card Reader x1A Swiss Army knife for coding education as this kit transforms the programming concepts into tangible experiences. Learn from more than a hundred interactive projects.
Crowtail-9G Servo x1
Components Pack (with wires, LED and more) x1
128G TF Card with Customized System x1
Accessories in CrowPi 3 Basic kit
The advanced kit has these items in addition to everything in the basic kit:
NFC Tag x10
Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB) x1
Laptop Tote x1
2.4G Wireless Keyboard + Mouse x1
32G TF Card with Customized System x1
Minecraft paper x5
Crowtail - I2C HUB x1
18650 Lithium Battery x2
Game Controller x2
Experiencing CrowPi 3
The CrowPi kit comes in a briefcase styled box which kind of gives me the cyberdeck feel. The case looks good with the frosted glass.
CrowPi 3 Kit with frosted glass cover
Let me share my experience using this open source AI education kit.
The build
This is a well-thought and well-built device. It comes in a briefcase styled box with a fold-out handle that makes it easy to carry. The frosted glass cover doesn't come off easily as it has strong magnets and all the sensors and components are firmly fixed in the kit.
I didn't do a fall test by dropping it to the ground to check if it can survive something like that. If you ever do this, accidentally or otherwise, do share the data with us 😜
There is an empty slot at the bottom that could hold a few tiny accessories. It's a small thing but
Built-in touchscreen
The small screen has touch capability and the touch response is pretty decent but I would only use it when there are no other options available. My fat fingers and eyes are not suitable for tiny screens anymore.
Okay, I could access pretty much most of the things with this tiny screen and it becomes even easier to use when I connected proper keyboard and mouse to it.
Still, it is tiny which is okay for retro gaming and a few small stuff to check the output or see debug info but you'll need a proper screen to make use of it.
This is evident as the customized learning interface is not properly displayed in the tiny screen.
CrowPi 3's small screen doesn't properly display its customized learning interface
Raspbian OS customized for interactive learning
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I still don't have a capture card for Raspberry Pi (a shame, I know) and hence I cannot share good quality images here. Apologies as I order a capture card.
The interface, when experienced on a proper monitor, shows the IDE tools and interactive project to choose from. I used their CrowView Notebook for this purpose, although it can be connected to any external monitor.
Select interactive project from left or use IDE from the right to code on your own
To use the interactive projects, you'll have to create an account. I think it's a local user account that stays on your system. This way, more than one people can save their progress.
A local user account saves your progress on the device
In the image below, you can see that it provides 39 Python projects that teach you the basic Python programming that also interact with various sensors and components on the kit.
Interactive Python project interface
When you select a project, you have instructions on half the screen and the code editor or tool in the other half. And the programs you run can also impact the hardware (most of the time) and you can see it on CrowPi 3 kit.
For example, in the screenshot above (if it is visible), it creates a simple program that sounds the buzzer on the board for the specified time.
See, this allows an easier way of learning with both software and hardware in the mix as you have pre-built scenario with instructions and their impact is visible on the hardware.
You are not restricted to this customized interface. You can also use the classic Raspbian interface and access the editors and projects from there as well.
The sensory board experience
The kit features two breadboards positioned strategically on the main board, eliminating the frustrating "where do I connect this?" moments.
While breadboards are available for custom circuits, most sensors come pre-connected and ready to use. There are easy sample projects to test the functionality of these sensors and they are fun to experiment even for adults.
The cooling fan
The cooling fan is loud and runs continuously
There is a visible cooling fan with RGB lighting. While it seemed cool at the beginning, it started to annoy me later. Don't get me wrong. I know that Raspberry Pi like devices must have some sort of cooling system.
But this fan is much too loud for its size. And it runs continuously, unnecessarily. There is no on/off button for that and I don't expect such a feature. Now, this could be a good programming challenge to write a script that turns the fan off when the CPU reaches a certain temperature threshold.
Bottom line
The CrowPi 3 solves the "hello world" problem in programming education. Instead of printing text to screens, students control real-world devices and see immediate physical results.
I mean, those variables are more meaningful when they represent real sensor readings. The conditional logic makes more sense when you can control lights and motors with it.
The ready-to-use kit eliminates the setup frustration that could arise from manually connecting all those sensors, fans and lights.
This is suitable for classrooms, as well as motivated self-learning at home. It is also a good Christmas gift candidate if you have children in your family that might be interested in learning AI, coding and electronics.
I don't have the pricing at the time of writing this review. Elecrow is planning to run a pre-order campaign through Kickstarter very soon. Please check it for pricing and release dates.
Mauro Eldritch
Sourav Rudra
Gourav Patnaik
Pranav Krishna
Abhishek Prakash
iamgio
Gourav Patnaik
Ankush Das
Laura_Michaels
