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9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: November 9th, 2025

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Slackware-Based PorteuX 2.4 Is Out with Linux 6.17, COSMIC and LXQt 2.3 Desktops

Powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.17 kernel series, PorteuX 2.4 ships with no less than eight editions featuring the GNOME 49.1, KDE Plasma 6.5.2, Xfce 4.20, Cinnamon 6.4.13, LXDE 0.11.1, LXQt 2.3, MATE 1.28.2, and COSMIC Beta 5 desktop environments.

MX Linux 25 “Infinity” Is Now Available for Download, Based on Debian 13 “Trixie”

MX Linux 25 features the long-term supported Linux 6.12 LTS kernel series for the standard editions and a Liquorix-flavored Linux 6.16 kernel for the KDE Plasma edition and the Xfce-based AHS (Advanced Hardware Support) edition, offering both systemd and SysVinit flavors for the Xfce and Fluxbox editions.

Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.5 Released with Support for Debian Trixie

Coming almost six and a half months after Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.4, the Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.5 release introduces support for recent GNU/Linux distributions, including Debian 13 “Trixie”, Ubuntu 25.10 (Questing Quokka), openSUSE Leap 16, Fedora Linux 43, and RHEL 10.

MKVToolNix 96.0 Released with New CLI Parameter and Improved AV1/IVF Support

MKVToolNix 96.0 comes almost a month after MKVToolNix 95.0 to introduce the --no-bom command-line parameter for disabling the writing of byte order marks to text files encoded with one of the UTF variants. This change fixes an unexpected UTF-8 BOM in mkvextract that occurred when extracting subtitles.

LinuxGizmos.com

SLogic16U3 USB3 Logic Analyzer Combines Compact Design with 3.2 Gbps Bandwidth

The device features an aluminum enclosure with a USB-C interface, 16 input channels, and compatibility with 0–10 V signal inputs and adjustable voltage thresholds from 0 V to 6 V in 0.1 V steps. It supports edge-based triggering for rising, falling, and level-sensitive events. The system also provides an option to extend its ADC module for use as an oscilloscope.

R1 Neo leverages GPS & compact rugged design for Meshtastic networks

The R1 Neo combines a Nordic nRF52840 microcontroller and a Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver for low-power mesh communication. The nRF52840 integrates a 64 MHz ARM Cortex-M4 CPU with a floating-point unit, 1 MB of Flash, and 256 KB of RAM, providing Bluetooth 5 connectivity and system control for the device.

news

An Alternative to Microsoft Office: SoftMaker FreeOffice 2024

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 04, 2025

A recent discussion in the PCLinuxOS Forum dealt with the procedure for installing a paid version of the SoftMaker Office suite. I helped the original poster successfully install his downloaded SoftMaker RPM file with a graphical utility, rather than the Terminal/command line. The last time that I experimented with SoftMaker FreeOffice was many years ago (2012), so I decided this would be a good opportunity to revisit FreeOffice 2024 and see how it has changed.

SoftMaker FreeOffice is a free (of cost) but proprietary office suite developed by SoftMaker Software GmbH in Nuremberg, Germany. The full-featured (paid) version of the program is called SoftMaker Office. (It is a bit confusing because there are actually four versions of SoftMaker Office: two versions of Office NX [subscription-based], and two versions of Office 2024 [Professional and Standard]. Each version has a slightly different feature set, depending on the software’s cost. As of June 2025, SM Office 2024 can be purchased from several US-based retailers such as Amazon, B&H, Newegg, Staples and even Walmart.)

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