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Submission + - Mozilla is working on a big Firefox redesign, here is what it looks like (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Neowin reports that Mozilla is working on a huge redesign for its Firefox browser, codenamed "Nova," which will bring pastel gradients, a refreshed new tab page, floating "island" UI elements, and more.

From the mockups, it appears Mozilla took some inspiration from Googles Material You (or at least, the dynamic color extraction part of it) because the browser color accent appears influenced by the wallpaper setting. Choosing a mint-green desktop background automatically shifts the top navigation bars to match that exact shade.

Mozilla has a habit of redesigning Firefox every few years. Before "Nova," there was the "Proton" redesign in 2021, the "Photon" redesign in 2017, and the "Australis" redesign in 2014. Nova is still in early development, so it might take a year or two before it appears in an official stable Firefox release.

Neowin adds:

Not every redesign project ends well for Mozilla, though. You might remember 2012sFirefox Metro, an ambitious attempt to build a custom browser for Windows 8s touch-first interface. The team built it to operate both as a traditional desktop application and as a touch-optimized Metro app.

The whole thing was scrapped in 2014 after two years in development due to a dismally low user adoption rate (a preview version of the software had been released a year earlier on the Aurora channel).

Comment Re:Ribbon, No. (Score 1) 229

by darwinmac (#66022740) Attached to: LibreOffice Says Its UI Is Way Better Than Microsoft Office's

The ribbon format is just bad. There is no uniformity to the UI. You have to spend time learning the UI, rather than just using it.

This is definitely a situation where simpler is better, and it's very hard to beat the standard drop-down tree'd menu with modal dialogs at the leaves.

The Ribbon looks fine to me tbh. The only complaint I have is that it sometimes takes too much vertical space, depending on the device you're using.

Submission + - LibreOffice says its UI is way better than Microsoft Office's (neowin.net) 1

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: While many users choose Microsoft Office over LibreOffice because of its support for the proprietary formats (.docx, .xlsx, and .pptx), others prefer Office for its "better" ribbon interface. These users often criticize LibreOffice for having a "clunky" UI instead of the "standard" ribbon interface you would find in Word, Excel, and other Office apps.

Now, Neowin reports that LibreOffice is fighting back, arguing that its UI is actually superior because it is customizable, with several modes such as the classic toolbar interface, an Office-inspired ribbon layout, a sidebar-focused design, and more. Furthermore, it argues that there is no evidence that the ribbon offers "superior usability" over other interface modes.

Incidentally, the characterisation of ribbon-style interfaces as "modern" or "standard", used by several users, is not based on any objective usability parameter or design principle, but is the result of Microsofts dominance in the market and the huge investments made when the ribbon was introduced in Office 2007 as a new paradigm for productivity software.

Before this, LibreOffice had also criticized its competitor OnlyOffice, accusing it of being "fake open source" because it believes OnlyOffice is working with Microsoft to lock users into the Office ecosystem by prioritizing the formats mentioned earlier instead of LibreOffice's own OpenDocument Format (ODF).

Submission + - Collabora clashes with LibreOffice over move to revive LibreOffice Online (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: The Document Foundation (TDF), the organization behind LibreOffice, has decided to bring back its LibreOffice Online project which been inactive since 2022. Collabora, a company that was a major contributor to the original LibreOffice Online, is not pleased with this development. After the original project went dormant, Collabora forked the code and created its own product, Collabora Online.

Collaboras Michael Meeks, who also sits on the TDF board, reacted to the TDFs decision by saying that a fully supported, free online version already exists in the form of Collabora Online, and that resurrecting a dead repository makes little sense when an active, open community around the online suite already exists.

For now, The Document Foundation plans to reopen the old repository for new contributions. The organization has issued a warning that the code is not ready for live deployment and users should wait until the development team confirms it is stable.

Submission + - Ubuntu Unity faces possible shutdown as team member cries for help (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Ubuntu Unity is staring at a possible shutdown. A community moderator has gone public pleading for help, admitting the project is “broken and needs to be fixed.” Neowin reports the distro is suffering from critical bugs so severe that upgrades from 25.04 to 25.10 are failing and even fresh installs are hit.

The moderator admits they lack the technical skill or time to perform a full rescue and is asking the broader community, including devs, testers, and UI designers, to step in so Ubuntu Unity can reach 26.04 LTS.

If no one steps in soon, this community flavor might quietly fade away once more.

Submission + - Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch ever" (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Windows 10 is officially dead, and the vultures are circling. Or maybe they are liberators, depending on your point of view. Zorin Group strategically released its major upgrade, Zorin OS 18, on October 14, the exact day Microsoft pulled the plug on its old OS. The company is now reporting a massive influx of new users.

In a recent post, Zorin Group said:

Zorin OS 18 just reached 100,000 downloads in a little over 2 days... Over 72% of these downloads came from Windows, reflecting our mission to provide a better alternative... Thank you for making this our biggest launch ever!

For months, groups like The Document Foundation and the "End of 10" campaign have been trying to poach Microsoft customers, arguing that Linux is a better home for the millions of PCs that cannot officially run Windows 11.

Zorin OS 18 sweetens the deal with features aimed at switchers, including a familiar desktop, a new window tiling manager that improves on Windows 11s Snap Layouts, and better compatibility for running Windows apps.

Submission + - KDE is removing all colorful third-party app icons from its Breeze icon theme (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: KDE is removing colorful third-party app icons from the Breeze theme starting with Frameworks 6.18, Neowin reports.

According to KDE devs, the change is meant to respect original app branding and reduce the ongoing work of chasing updates whenever logos change. Instead of maintaining its own versions, Breeze will now defer to the icons provided directly by apps.

Plasma 6.5 brings smaller quality-of-life improvements, while Plasma 6.4.5 and Gear 25.12.0 focus mainly on bug fixes and polish.

Submission + - Volkswagen wants you to pay monthly to unlock more horsepower (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Volkswagen is offering a subscription model for extra horsepower on its ID.3 electric cars. Want to bump your ride from the standard 201 bhp to the full 228 bhp? That will be about £16.50 per month or £165 per year, or a one-time £649 "lifetime" fee that is tied to the car, not you. If you sell it, you have to pay again.

VW defended this by saying you are basically paying for a sportier experience without buying a higher powered model upfront, calling it "nothing new." Nothing changes mechanically. You are just paying VW to essentially flip a boolean somewhere in the car's software.

Submission + - Sad news: Another Linux distro is shutting down (neowin.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Neowin reports that Kaisen Linux, a Debian-based distro packed with tools for sysadmins, system rescue, and network diagnostics, is shutting down. This comes not long after Intel's Clear Linux also reached the end of the road.

Kaisen offered multiple desktop environments like KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, and Xfce, plus a "toram" mode that could load the whole OS into RAM so you could free up your USB port. The final release, Rolling 3.0, updates the base to Debian 13, defaults to KDE Plasma 6, replaces LightDM with SDDM, drops some packages like neofetch and hping3, and adds things like faster BTRFS snapshot restores, full ZFS support, and safer partitioning behavior.

Unlike Clear Linux, Kaisen will still get security updates for the next two years, giving current users time to migrate without rushing.

Submission + - Feds Used Local Cop's Password to Do Immigration Surveillance With Flock Cameras (404media.co)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: According to a report by 404 Media, a DEA agent on a Chicago-area task force used a Palos Heights police detective’s Flock automated license plate reader login to search for someone suspected of an “immigration violation” and did it without the officer’s knowledge. That password belonged to Detective Todd Hutchinson and has now been changed.

This is problematic on multiple levels. First, using license plate reader systems for immigration enforcement is illegal under Illinois law. Second, casually sharing access between local cops and federal agents violates Flock’s terms of service.

An internal Palos Heights PD memo confirmed that Hutchinson routinely allowed others on the task force to use his login for narcotics cases. In late January 2025, one of those DEA agents ran 24 searches using the term “immigration violation.” Even after the incident came to light, the officer “remains one of our greatest officers,” according to a deputy chief.

Submission + - Syncthing 2.0 released with major changes, switching from LevelDB to SQLite (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Syncthing 2.0 is out, and the headline change is a switch from LevelDB to SQLite for its database backend. The devs say this should make the codebase easier to maintain, improve reliability, and simplify the data layer. On first launch after upgrading, expect a database migration that can take a while if you have a lot of files.

Other changes include structured logging with key-value pairs, per-package log level control, and a new WARNING level between INFO and ERROR. Deleted items are now forgotten after six months by default, the default folder no longer appears automatically, and rolling-hash detection has been removed for faster scanning and syncing.

Under the hood, devices running v2 can now maintain multiple connections by default, delete conflicts can take priority, Ed25519 keys are supported for secure sync, bandwidth limiting has been added, and QUIC UDP port mapping is supported.

One catch is that some platforms have lost prebuilt binaries due to SQLite build complexity, including DragonFly BSD, Illumos/Solaris, Linux ppc64, various BSDs, and Windows ARM.

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