# More Office Suite drama, Chrome downloads AI model without consent, Plasma 6.7 things - Linux News

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** The Linux Experiment
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY
- **Дата:** 09.05.2026
- **Длительность:** 25:29
- **Просмотры:** 51,712

## Описание

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:23 Sponsor: Proton Mail
01:25 LibreOffice questions the sovereignty of Euro office
04:07 Plasma 6.7 will come with its new style engine
06:17 Plasma 6.7 fixes big performance issues
08:18 Google Chrome installs a model on device without consent
11:11 Linux kernel guidelines for adding new filesystems
14:04 Pilot project for open, Linux based workspaces in the Netherlands
15:30 Someone remade Unity Desktop with Wayfire and libadwaita
17:50 Dell and Lenovo now sponsor LVFS
19:07 Ubuntu's Twitter account compromised
20:28 Valve publishes Steam Controller CAD files
21:27 Valve opens reservation queue for Steam Controllers
23:32 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers


Links:

LibreOffice questions the sovereignty of Euro office
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/05/05/thank-you-on-behalf-of-odf

Plasma 6.7 will come with its new style engine
https://9to5linux.com/kdes-new-css-based-style-engine-union-is-coming-to-kde-plasma-6-7

Plasma 6.7 fixes big performance issues
https://zamundaaa.github.io/wayland/2026/05/06/making-wl-shm-fast.html

Google Chrome installs a model on device without consent
https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-silent-nano-install/

Linux kernel guidelines for adding new filesystems
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vfs/vfs.git/commit/?h=vfs-7.2.misc&id=b34d597faae60a4c89235205478497b975e86bc5

Pilot project for open, Linux based workspaces in the Netherlands
https://vng.nl/artikelen/digitale-werkplek-geen-memo-maar-demo-werkplekken-in-open-source

Someone remade Unity Desktop with Wayfire and libadwaita
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/05/ubuntu-unity-desktop-wayfire-recreation

Dell and Lenovo now sponsor LVFS
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Dell-Lenovo-Sponsoring-LVFS

Ubuntu's Twitter account compromised
https://itsfoss.com/news/ubuntu-twitter-compromised/

Valve opens reservation queue for Steam Controllers
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/valve-announce-a-reservation-system-for-the-new-steam-controller/

Valve publishes Steam Controller CAD files
https://www.digitalfoundry.net/news/2026/05/valve-releases-steam-controller-cad-files-under-creative-commons-license

#linuxnews #linuxdesktop #linuxdistro

## Содержание

### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY) Intro

Hey everyone and welcome back to the Linux and Open source news show. This week we've got some more Office Suite drama as the Document Foundation keeps taking shots at other projects. We also have some really cool stuff happening for Plasma 6. 7 that we'll need to talk about. We've got Chrome installing local AI models in the background without consent from users at all and a bunch of other things. And we also have this message from our sponsor. So this video

### [0:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=23s) Sponsor: Proton Mail

is sponsored by Proton Mail. They're your end-to-end and zero access encrypted solution for your personal email. It comes with all the bells and whistles that you would expect from a privacy first email service uh with spam detection, fishing protections, multiple email aliases, management of all this encryption. It has apps for Linux, for your phone, for any other operating system you might want. It's just a fantastic email service. Then on top of that, if you create your Proton address, you also get access to an entire suite of services to really compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft, or Apple, you've got your password manager, you've got your VPN, you've got your storage space, you've got a Google Docs and Google Sheets equivalent, and more. As usual, the account is free to get started, but of course, if you need more storage space, more features, more email aliases, they have paid plans that you can follow. I use Proton Mail and ProtonVPN and Proton Pass for all my own personal stuff. I really enjoy them. They've been a really solid sponsor of the channel for years now. I can only recommend them. The link as usual is down in the description. So, the office

### [1:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=85s) LibreOffice questions the sovereignty of Euro office

suite drama is not over yet, it seems, as Libri Office, or at least the document foundation, the entity behind Libre Office is now questioning whether the Euro Office project is really a sovereign way to run an office suite in the cloud. They specifically asked which file format Euro office uses by default presumably hoping for ODF which is the format that the document foundation manages on top of managing Libri Office. It is a more open and an easier to work with format than the ones Microsoft relies upon for Microsoft Office. They received no reply from Euro Office and thus wrote a blog post which outlines their thinking. Basically, they say that defaulting to Microsoft formats does not really allow you as the user to truly manage your own documents and your own digital future and that it still locks you into Microsoft's grip. Euro Office does list ODF as a supported format, but they do tout great Microsoft Office compatibility as a selling point in their FAQ. Presumably, that's the one they would default to, much like what Only Office does since your office is a fork of Only Office. The Document Foundation used the same blog post to thank contributors to the ODF format for their work and reiterated their vision of using a truly open format everywhere in the form of ODF. And I can understand where they coming from. Microsoft Office formats are supposedly open, but you don't really have an open public implementation of them. Meaning you basically have to compare everything you do with Microsoft Office and reverse engineer the features. Even if you follow the spec to the letter, it doesn't mean your document will open properly and be interoperable with other suites. So, ODF is much better in that way. You do have multiple public open-source implementations of the format that you can compare yours too. It's better. The problem is your organization doesn't live in a vacuum. In most cases, you have to exchange documents outside of your organization and people receiving them are more likely than not using Microsoft Office. Meaning you probably want the default format for everything that you send to everyone else to be Microsoft Office formats. And if you start using ODF inside your own organization and then exporting in Microsoft Office formats, then you're going to have to manage two versions of the same document which will invariably lead to some problems, wrong numbers, wrong formatting, not up-to-date stuff being shared or printed or whatever. It's not an ideal situation until more governments, countries, organizations default to ODF, like for example what Germany does. We will probably have to have our office suites default to Microsoft Office formats cuz it is just more convenient. The fact that your office supports ODF is, in my

### [4:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=247s) Plasma 6.7 will come with its new style engine

opinion, good enough. Now, let's talk about Plasma because there are some cool things coming. First, the new KD style engine called Union will make its debut in Plasma 6. 7. This is a new way to achieve more consistency between KD apps whether they built using any type of cute component Kiraami or other frameworks. Basically, it's a middleware layer that applies the theme for the application where the application describes the components, the buttons, the controls it needs to display and the style engine manages the actual drawing on screen for things to look right and unified. It is based on CSS with three main components. You have an input layer which reads the description that the application has of its own interface. You have the intermediate layer which turns all of those descriptions into a model of how elements should look and be displayed, where they are placed, their size, etc. And then you have the output layer which translates that model into rendering commands for drawing elements on screen. For example, you're passing the commands to cute which will then talk to whatever it needs to talk to actually draw the interface as it's supposed to be drawn. So, in 6. 7, it will just be in preview for testing. It will not be enabled by default, but the goal presumably is to have it as the default style engine when it's ready. Maybe 6. 8, maybe Plasma 7. We'll see. This could also come with a revamped theme for KDE to modernize Breeze a little bit. Work is ongoing on this. I do need to find the time to plan a call with the person in charge of this and I'll probably make a video out of it to showcase the amount of work that has gone into it, why they are doing it, uh their reasons for everything they picked, etc. We need to work on that. It's on me. I just don't have the time. I really love what KD is doing right now. It is truly my favorite desktop environment these days. It is really stable. I just never experience crashes or bugs in day-to-day use. It is really fast. It is not that resource inensive anymore. They really try to optimize for every new whan protocol. They implement them really fast. They have good performance. They have good applications nowadays and they're actually working on making those apps look more consistent and have a little bit broader app ecosystem as well. I think they're

### [6:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=377s) Plasma 6.7 fixes big performance issues

really doing a fantastic job. Still on Plasma 6. 7, we have some improvements coming on the performance side because while most KD apps use something that calls to the GPU to render the interface, not all of them do. Some rely on cute widgets, and that's just CPUbased rendering, meaning that the performance can sometimes feel very sluggish, even on a relatively high-end PC. On Wayan specifically, it looks like too many copies of what needed to be drawn on screen were created and passed around in memory, resulting in subpar performance. Some of these copies apparently even blocked the main application thread until they were completed, which led to frame skipping, to the pointer being sluggish. Basically, it was a bad experience. The example they give is with K develop especially in power save mode on a laptop. So Plasma 6. 7 will fix that problem by using an already existing Linux driver. Kwin will handle most of the work and of course if things aren't supported well on the application side, it will fall back to the previous code. So things still work. Applications will likely need to implement some stuff as well, but apparently it's a few lines of code. It's not that difficult. The end result seems to be that the mouse pointer no longer skips frames, no longer stutters, and the CPU usage goes down quite a lot as well. For the K develop example that they gave, just scrolling the application used to use 80 to 90% of one CPU core. With that change, it goes down to 20%. That is a really good change that will bring better performance, better battery life, better efficiency when you use your CPU. It's great. And as a user, you don't really control which app uses what. So sometimes uh everything will feel really smooth and at some point you'll open an application and your desktop will start lagging when it usually doesn't and you won't really be able to understand why. This fixes that and I think that's a really good change. Now presumably applications should probably move to another way of drawing things on screen that is GPU accelerated but not all of them can or have the time to do so. And so in the meantime you at least got better performance in the process. Now

### [8:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=498s) Google Chrome installs a model on device without consent

in the usual sort of abuse that we get from Google, it looks like they now automatically download and install a 4 gigs model silently in the background on Chrome users devices. This file that they download contains the weights for Gemini running locally. And Google did not tell users about this. They did not explain it. They didn't even offer a choice. So basically, at some point, it's likely that every Chrome user that has a PC that is deemed powerful enough to run this model will download four extra gigs of data, whether they use Gemini or not, whether they wanted it or not. This is all in a single file called weights. bin. And you might think, hey, I'm just going to delete it and it's fine. But if you delete it, Chrome redownloads it unless you manually go to the Chrome flags and disable all of Chrome's AI features. So, if you wanted to use AI features in the browser, but you did not want that local model being downloaded, you can't. It just you have to choose. This behavior was noticed on Windows and on Mac OS. I would be surprised if it wasn't on Linux as well. It hasn't been deployed to every Chrome user, but it looks like the number of reports is increasing. This is obviously unacceptable for many reasons. First, this creates massive disk space and download waste. If every Chrome user in the world ends up downloading this and then updating it in the background, that is insane amounts of power and bandwidth being wasted on something that just most people will never touch. Second, it's completely without consent. Any UI prompt, any information, nothing is there. Third, deleting the file does nothing. You will just redownload 4 gigs of data. It's actually worse. The durable solution to remove it is hidden behind the flag that might get removed at some point and is completely obuscated and no one will discover this as well. And fourth, this is a separate binary. It's not the Chrome app, the web browser. It's a separate program with a separate security policy, a separate use case. Basically, Chrome installs another application in the background without telling you, which is really close to what malware tries to do. The worst thing is this local model is not what powers the AI assistant that is prominently displayed in the URL bar. This all goes through Google's cloud services. The local model is only used for the tab group AI suggestions, for smart paste, for page summaries, things that are in the context menus, not the main AI buttons. So, you get to waste 4 gigs of storage for features that most users will never ever click on. A quick napkin calculations from the website who reported this shows that basically this download if it only affected a 100 million Chrome users which I think is very conservative compared to the billions of people who use the application this would waste as much power as 7,000 UK homes use in a year which doesn't seem like an acceptable ratio or trade-off. Now, apparently the

### [11:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=671s) Linux kernel guidelines for adding new filesystems

Linux kernel team is starting to be a bit bothered by the amount of file systems available in there, specifically developers working on the virtual file system code or VFS. Since there are more and more file systems proposed for inclusion, the VFS team has proposed putting in place a few guidelines to decide what goes in and what doesn't go in. Currently, there are 69 different file systems, which is nice, including pseudo file systems used for certain kernel features, plus some old things that are likely not maintained very well. Two new file systems were proposed, FTRFS and VMU FAT. This apparently prompted the VFS team to document what should be accepted because it will cause maintenance issues in the long run. Of course, the main requirement is using VFS itself. if you want to get into VFS that makes sense and not using deprecated code but also providing user space utilities to check the file system and to create one. There needs to be a test suite as well and proper documentation which doesn't seem extravagant. The guidelines also state that if developers don't respond to requests for these elements, don't adapt to changes in the kernel's infrastructure, or don't provide solid ways to test their work, then these file systems will be marked as deprecated and ultimately removed. VFS developers also ask people to check if there's already an existing file system that covers the same use case in the kernel before proposing a new one that sort of does the same thing. and they say that if it's a very niche use case, developers should probably consider providing this file system through Fuse instead. The guidelines also outline a few specific points, but it basically boils down to use the kernel tools that exist instead of reimplementing new layers that will do the same thing or at least be prepared to make a very convincing argument as to why you cannot work within the existing kernel framework. User base size will also be a factor for whether these file systems are accepted or not. and they encourage developers to maintain these out of tree for a while to prove that their stuff is reliable enough. Now, this is just a proposal for now, but I think it makes sense. The Linux kernel isn't really supposed to be a test bed for everyone's pet project and every file system. It is used in production by millions upon millions of servers. And so, it needs to be robust and the people actually maintaining stuff need to be able to focus their time on things that are actually used and actually important. And so everyone and anyone proposing their brand new file system is probably not a good use of that maintainer's time. We'll see if this gets adopted if it gets some push back or changes, but I think it makes sense. We have file systems that cover basically every use case and the door is still open for people bringing a brand new one that is fantastic, well tested, and fits a wide portion of the Linux audience. And at that point, they will pass the guidelines and they will get

### [14:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=844s) Pilot project for open, Linux based workspaces in the Netherlands

included. something I completely missed last month, but the Netherlands is testing Linux for their municipalities, or at least they're testing a Linux-based cloud office solution for their municipalities. For now, this is a pilot program in four municipalities, Amsterdam, Eder, Certoenbos, and Zanstat. I hope I pronounced those correctly. You'll tell me in the comments if I mangled those names. I'm sorry. So, what they're testing is a new Linux-based workspace that runs on an open-source system made for this specific purpose developed by the Ministry of the Interior. It uses NexCloud and My Office. And it also apparently aligns with efforts like Open Desk and the French Digital Suite to be able to reuse and share modules and components easily in case some of the stuff that they implemented needs to be replaced, in case someone does something better than they did. It's interesting. It seems to run on a cloud platform that uses Linux. Of course, the pilot will run until the end of the year to collect more feedback and then see if this is applicable more widely, if things need to be developed further, or if the project just did not pan out. It's pretty cool to see more and more of those projects. This is just a pilot, but it includes Amsterdam, which is presumably the biggest city in the Netherlands, so that is still a pretty major shift. We'll see if it works. It doesn't mean that everyone in these municipalities will actually be running a Linux PC, but they will be doing most of their work on an open-source service suite that is hosted on Linux, which I

### [15:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=930s) Someone remade Unity Desktop with Wayfire and libadwaita

think is already pretty nice. Apparently, the Unity desktop is being remade using the Wayfire compositor and some liberta components. Now, Unity is pretty much abandoned again. The sole person who tried to revive it uh with the Ubuntu Unity project moved on to other things in their life. And so basically one of the maintainers and developers of the Yaharu theme for Abuntu decided to try something out and to build a new version of Unity. It is not a carbon copy, but it does behave in sort of the same way with a resizable dash with a desktop grid with different animations that sort of look like the ones Unity had by default. You have a 3D view for alt tabbing in and out of applications. You have an expose view, all of that stuff. It seems to be missing the global menu, which I don't think would work on anything that relies on Gnome apps anyway because they just don't have a menu at all. And I haven't seen if the window controls are moved to the top panel when apps are maximized. But you do also get the same doc and top panel that Unity has. You get something that sort of looks like the Unity Dash. It's not that different. Now, the effort is just for fun. There is apparently no Git repo right now. No official announcement of trying to make this an actual thing. So, we'll see if it ever goes beyond that fun stage. And even then, it won't really be Unity because you don't have the global menu. scopes in the dash. It's just not going to be the same project. And the main missing part will be the fact that it is not led by the actual company doing the actual DRO. This is what made Unity special. It was Canonical trying to implement their own vision of an operating system from the bottom up. They still based their work on Linux and a bunch of tools that other people make, but they were trying to build their own entire desktop experience fully integrated going in the way they wanted. That's what made Unity special. That's what makes Cosmic special. It's not the features specifically. It's the fact that it's a company deciding what should go in and what shouldn't, which gives a different perspective from a volunteer-led project. Volunteers will often work on stuff that affects them specifically or stuff that they like to work on because it's fun. It's a cool project that they want to tackle. They do tackle issues and feature requests that other people ask for. But a company will always prioritize the things that their customers or their potential customers want, which gives another approach and that's what make those desktops interesting. So even if you remade Unity

### [17:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=1070s) Dell and Lenovo now sponsor LVFS

yourself as your pet project, it's still not really going to have the same level of interest. I think Lenovo and Dell are now both sponsoring the Linux vendor firmware service or LVFS. This is what lets you update firmware for your devices and hardware more easily on Linux. And this project recently started calling out companies who use the project but don't contribute to hosting or costs. And it seems like their efforts have paid off because Dell and Lenovo are now contributing. The project already had framework as a sponsor plus the open- source firmware foundation, the Linux Foundation and Red Hat. But these two big vendors can now make a difference too. They're supporting LVFS at the highest tier, so $100,000 per year, which sends a very good signal to other companies as well. Now, open source efforts like LVFS provide a fantastic service for users because you don't have to flash firmware and hope something is there and make a mistake and break your PC. You can just download firmware and install it and update it and it works. And for manufacturers, it gives an equally good service because you can ensure that people actually have the latest firmware. You can fix security issues. This way you don't have to provide weird flashing procedures. It's just great. So, it's good to see major companies supporting the service that they actually use and gives them a

### [19:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=1147s) Ubuntu's Twitter account compromised

bunch of sizable benefits. Now, Abuntu cannot catch a break. It seems after their infrastructure was ddosed over the past 5 days with most of their servers and services now back up and running. It is their Twitter account that has been compromised as well. A tweet on the official Ubuntu account introduced a new AI agent called Numbat accompanied by a pretty bad AI generated picture of a mascot. And of course, talking about blockchain and crypto and Solana with a URL that called to a-obuntu. com. This website has already been flagged for fishing. Anyway, this was apparently an entire thread of tweets with replies closed off, of course, to avoid people warning others about the scam. The web page behind it looked a lot like actual Canonicals web pages. And of course, the end goal was to get people to connect their hypothetical crypto wallet to get some kind of token or other for free. We don't know if this hack of the Twitter account was linked to the same people who ddosed Ubuntu, but the thread was since removed. So, I guess Canonical got control of their account back at some point. As usual, when a very well-known company starts announcing something related to crypto or blockchain, especially in 2026, uh, you know, it's a scam. If they had stuck with the AI assistant thing and made people download something, maybe that could have passed for something legit for a minute. Uh, but if you say crypto in 2026, yeah

### [20:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=1228s) Valve publishes Steam Controller CAD files

it's a scam. In a pretty nice move, Valve opened the CAD files for the Steam Deck controller. So, anyone can now build custom skins, charging stands, phone grips, phone mounts, new ways of holding your controller, basically building replacement parts to customize their own controllers. Companies though will likely not be able to take advantage of these files directly because they are distributed under a Creative Commons non-commercial license that requires attribution and sharing back of the designs with the community. The license says that companies that want to build accessories should get in touch with Valve directly. You also have engineering diagrams for the controllers that let you see which parts should not be covered to let the controller work wirelessly. Really good stuff. I'm excited to see what people come up with to tweak and customize and change that controller. I think it's always nice to give people the option to fix potential issues in the future, to customize, to personalize. It's great. I wasn't able to buy one, but we'll see that this

### [21:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=1287s) Valve opens reservation queue for Steam Controllers

might no longer be an issue soon. Because after the Steam controller sold extremely fast, Valve has put in place a reservation system that should have already begun. It will let you place a reservation and then they will start shipping the controllers in order of those reservations when the thing gets back in stock. So, it's basically like what they did with the Steam Deck and it's generally how companies handle their sales anyway. Like just because you don't have stock anymore doesn't mean you can't sell it. You just have to tell people wait for an unspecified number of weeks, but you can still at least order the thing. That seems absolutely normal. I don't know why they didn't do that in the first place. They had the same experience with the Steam Deck and the usual. Uh, sorry, you're logged in 1 minute after the sale opens. So now you can't even click the button. It's out of stock. There's nothing we can do. Let me place an order. I don't care if I have to wait for 4 months before it ships. So, reservations will be limited to one controller per Steam user to avoid scalpers. You will get an order email which will let you complete the purchase through Steam. You will have 72 hours to do so. And people who already bought a Steam controller will not be able to buy another just yet. They also said that you need to have an account in good standing on Steam and that account must have made a purchase on Steam before the 27th of April 2026 likely to avoid any new account being created just to buy controllers and scalp them again. Valve said that they will start fulfilling reservations for the US and Canada next week and it will be a little bit later for the EU, UK, and Australia. I don't understand why this system wasn't already in place on the first day uh of being able to order a Steam controller. This let's make people fight so they arrive 1 second earlier and they can buy one is dumb. Like you would have sold more if people had been able to place reservations. And you cannot say, "Oh, we did not anticipate how popular it would be. You saw the Steam Deck. You know people like your stuff, your Valve. " Like come on, you can do better than this. I think not a big deal. But I will never understand how these companies handle their logistics. It

### [23:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_d-65yMxY&t=1412s) Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers

seems really, really weird. What is not weird is to want a computer from our sponsor, Tuxedo Computers. So, Tuxedo is a hardware manufacturer. They're based in Germany, but they sell to most countries in the world. They make laptops and desktops that are designed to run really well with Linux. You can buy them pre-installed with their Linux DRO or Ubuntu, but you can install any Linux DRO on them as well since they upstream the work that they do on drivers to make sure that every little feature is well supported. They have a big range of computers. You will likely find something that suits your needs in there. And it comes with the added benefit of knowing that Linux will run really well on those devices. I only use Tuxedo computers for gaming, for video editing, recording, anything. They are the only computers I actually use dayto-day. They're really good. Tuxedo has been sponsoring the channel for years now. And yeah, as usual, the link is down in the description. Anyway, this will conclude today's video. I hope you enjoyed listening to it and or watching it. Maybe you did. So, if you did, let me know in the comments cuz you know, all those buttons underneath the video kind of important uh for YouTube. And if you want to support the show, you also have plenty of links down in the description. You can get a daily version of this show if you would prefer just by clicking one of those links. Thank you all for watching and all listening and I guess you'll see me in the next one. Bye.

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*Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/51398*