Chapter 1: Fedora 38 Launch

This week has been packed with significant updates across various projects. In this edition, we'll explore the latest from Fedora, Valve's Proton, the Vivaldi browser, Deepin, and the KDE photo management tool, digiKam.

Fedora 38 has been released, introducing fresh wallpapers, a revamped website, new spins, and updated packages. The aesthetic changes are notable, with the new wallpaper visible above. While the redesigned website isn't part of the operating system, it represents a collaborative effort among various design teams and the community.

Two new official spins have been introduced: "Sericea," which utilizes the Sway window manager on Wayland, and "Budgie," featuring the Budgie desktop environment. Additionally, an official Fedora 38 Phosh image is now available, tailored for mobile devices (Phosh being a modified version of Gnome Shell for such devices). The Fedora 38 Workstation now comes equipped with Gnome 44, ensuring faster shutdowns and improved performance. On a technical note, microdnf has been replaced with dnf5, enhancing performance and reducing memory usage, while key programming languages have been updated to their latest versions.

Chapter 2: Proton 8 Overview

Valve has unveiled Proton 8, touted as the "most substantial rebase" to date. This update is based on Wine 8.0, marking a significant enhancement in gaming compatibility for Linux users.

Chapter 3: Vivaldi Browser Update

Vivaldi 6.0 has been released, featuring new Workspaces and Custom Icons. This update allows users to completely customize the browser's theme, even enabling unique designs reminiscent of Windows XP. The built-in theming tools simplify the process of changing colors, backgrounds, and icons. Users can input hex codes for colors and upload images for icons, making personalization straightforward and enjoyable.

The Workspaces feature introduces a combobox to the left of the tabs, facilitating quick transitions between different workspaces, each with its own theme and open tabs. Furthermore, Tab Stack and Tab Tile functionalities allow for organizing tabs within a workspace into various categories, enhancing productivity. Overall, Vivaldi continues to impress with its rich customization options.

Chapter 4: Deepin 20.9 Release

In the midst of this release frenzy, Deepin has launched version 20.9, primarily focusing on bug fixes and updates. While the main development is centered around the upcoming Deepin 23 (currently in alpha), version 20.9 ensures that the existing Deepin 20 remains up to date with the latest bug fixes. Notably, it upgrades the Qt toolkit to version 5.18.8, the last LTS release of Qt5. Several applications, including the log viewer, image viewer, drawing board, and software package manager, have also seen updates.

Chapter 5: DigiKam's Major Update

KDE's digiKam has released a significant update, boasting revamped documentation that enhances user experience. This update introduces a plethora of new features, including support for raw images from a wider range of cameras, a new text recognition tool for transcribing text within images, and improved metadata reading reliability.

Among the highlights is a neural network tool that assigns a "quality" rating to images based on various criteria like content and colors. This functionality is integrated into the Batch Queue Manager, allowing users to sort images by this "AI quality" metric. For anyone in need of a robust photo management application, the full announcement is worth checking out.

In conclusion, this week's updates highlight the continuous evolution and enhancement of open-source software, providing users with improved functionality and customization options across various platforms.