It's Foss News

Mozilla, and by extension its flagship product, Firefox, have been facing increasing scrutiny by users and journalists alike. Once a bright light in the dark, privacy-pitfall-ridden web, Mozilla has made executive decisions that have rubbed many users the wrong way—prompting some to switch to alternatives like Brave and LibreWolf.

And their sudden pivot towards integrating AI-powered features only makes me wonder: Do they even have a clear vision anymore?

Regardless, a recent report sheds light on what they have been working on. Let's check it out.

Firefox AI Link Previews: What to Expect?

Spotted first by OMG! Ubuntu, Firefox's latest Nightly build now has an experimental AI Link Previews feature that runs locally on a user's device to serve up neat summaries of a link's content before the user visits it.

Currently, I am not sure which AI model is underneath, but my bet is on an open weight model that's not too heavy on system resources.

I tested it on an Ubuntu 25.04 laptop with an NVIDIA RTX 3050 GPU, and there were inconsistencies in terms of getting the link previews to load up. When they did load, most articles were summarized well.

📋If you were wondering, the stable release for this new AI-powered feature is planned with the upcoming Firefox 138 release.

However, for one article, Firefox showed me the wrong information, giving out bits of information that were not related to the news at hand. You see, the first two points about a meeting of CEOs in China were right, but that was not related to the article I selected.

Only the part about the 34% tariff on US goods was correct, but it also had errors, where it blurted out that Xi Jinping made the announcement, whereas, in reality, the Chinese authorities did so.

I know it is a work in progress, and the AI Link Previews dialog always shows a disclaimer at the bottom. But I sincerely hope the Mozilla developers can refine the AI model underneath so it isn't prone to such basic mistakes.

Can't Wait? Want to Try it Out Now?

🚧Try this with a spare Firefox installation, not on your primary one. If you are not the one who likes to tweak and troubleshoot, avoid such experiments and wait for the stable release of Firefox version 138.

Users on Ubuntu can check out AI Link Previews on Firefox Nightly 139.0a1. First, open up the App Center and look for Firefox under Manage if you have it installed, or search for it using the Search bar if you are starting a fresh installation.

Once you open the page for Firefox, click on the Channel dropdown and scroll until you find the latest/edge channel with the version number 139.0a1, and click on it.

Now, depending on whether you have an existing installation or a new installation, you will be either shown Update or Install. In that case, just click on the green button to get Firefox Nightly installed.

Following that, type about:config in a new tab and agree to the cautionary message that appears. Now, search for the term browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled and toggle it to True.

Now comes the tricky part: hover your mouse cursor on an article in a new Firefox tab and press Shift + Alt and wait for the dialog to appear. You might have to spam that key combo or restart your browser to get the AI-generated summary.

Users of other Linux distros will have to manually install Firefox Nightly and follow the steps shown in the video above. Alternatively, they could also fire up a virtual machine with a recent Ubuntu version installed and test this new feature.

Firefox Nightly 139.0a1

💬 Did you like what you saw? Couldn't be bothered with AI shenanigans in a web browser? Let me know below!

From It's FOSS News via this RSS feed

Neuroscience and Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) have revolutionized the way we understand and interact with the human brain. From decoding brain activity to enabling direct communication between flesh and machine, the field has made major gains both in terms of research and application.

In this ever-changing space, PiEEG has put forward an intriguing new offering that’s definitely worth your attention.

🚧This device is not intended for medical use. It is designed solely for research and educational purposes.

PiEEG Kit: What is It?

As the brainchild of Ildar Rakhmatulin, the PiEEG Kit is an open source, Raspberry Pi-powered biosignal tool that can be used to analyze EEG, EMG, EKG, and EOG signals for neuroscience research and educational purposes.

It supports seamless integration with ChatGPT for interactive data analysis and a connector that allows serial transmission for robot control.

On the hardware side of things, the PiEEG kit is powered by the PiEEG Shield, which connects directly to a Raspberry Pi, handling the capture of biosignals like EEG, EMG, EKG, and EOG.

Overview of the PiEEG Kit board on the left and the PiEEG Shield on the right.

Along with the core hardware, the kit comes loaded with essential test accessories like an EEG electrode cap and electrodes, allowing users to capture and monitor various biosignals.

All that data can be accessed using the screen, mouse, and keyboard on a custom Raspberry Pi software interface that allows users to perform a wide range of tasks. All of this is packed into a portable carry case, making it easy to transport and setup wherever needed.

The PiEEG Kit is powered by a power supply that requires an external battery, and its functionality can be expanded through various available expansion ports. It is designed for a range of users, including machine learning and data scientists, researchers, startups, students, and tech enthusiasts.

The technical paper is a must-read if you are searching for more details or the results of the assessment tests.

Want to Get/Build Yours?

If you want a fully assembled, ready-to-go solution, then you will want to keep an eye on the Indiegogo page for the PiEEG Kit. If you are up for a DIY adventure, then you can refer to the project's GitHub repo, where you will find the software, the SDK, the schematics, etc.

PiEEG Kit (Indiegogo)

Suggested Read 📖

A Raspberry Pi 5-Powered Handheld Computer? This Looks So Cool!If you are on the lookout for an exciting gadget, this might be it.It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra

From It's FOSS News via this RSS feed

APT, or Advanced Package Tool, is an offering by the Debian project that is used on Debian and its derivatives like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and elementary OS for effortless package management.

Around this time last year, a new user interface for APT was introduced, marking the start of the development cycle for APT 3.0. That has now reached its end with the official introduction of the APT 3.0 stable series.

APT 3.0: What's New?

Dedicated to Steve Langasek, the APT 3.0 release represents a major milestone for the package manager, introducing some much-needed improvements that most users will appreciate.

APT 3.0 is powered by Solver3, a new, more efficient package dependency resolver that significantly improves how package installations and upgrades are handled. As a backtracking algorithm, it allows for more efficient dependency resolution and better handling of complex package conflicts.

Besides that, there are the new coloring changes that show up when installing, removing, or upgrading a package. As you can see below, when installing a new package, all its dependencies are shown in a familiar green color.👇

_ Installing a new package using APT 3.0._

I also checked out some other APT commands, such as the one for removing a package and all of its related dependencies. It showed me all the dependencies to be removed in red. I also ran the list command, which listed all the available packages for installation in a paginated list.

These additions, coupled with the column padding, have definitely improved the readability of APT outputs by a big margin, and the slick progress bar at the bottom is like the cherry on top. See for yourself!👇

_ Removing an existing package and listing available packages using APT 3.0._

Another important set of upgrades are the removal of GnuTLS and gcrypt in favor of OpenSSL for providing better cryptographic support, replacement of GnuPG with Sequoia , and introduction of the modernize-sources command.

The latter of which automatically updates and optimizes package source configuration files with the latest recommended formats and repository structures.

There are some additional changes that include things like:

• Removal of remote connection methods like FTP, RSH, and SSH.
• Recommended/suggested packages are now shown for upgrade actions as well.
• autoremove is now more aggressive, removing unnecessary packages to prevent clutter.
• Essential package removals are now highlighted with color to prevent accidental system nuking.
• Translation upgrades for Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Czech, Romanian, Catalan, German, Brazilian, and French.

The changelog ( go up from 2.9.0 ) has additional information if you are up for a longer read.

When and how to APT 3.0

Since it is just released, you'll have to wait for the new distro releases to provide them.

Ubuntu 25.04 is the most straightforward way of checking out this APT release. If you can wait, then the upcoming Debian 13 " Trixie " release will feature this as its default package manager.

🚧

I don't recommend this on systems that are meant for general/production use.

Currently, the unstable repo of Debian ( Sid ) has APT 3.0 live. That's how we tested it for this article. Those up to manually install/upgrade to this release can do so by editing the sources.list file and adding the unstable branch to their Debian installation.

APT 3.0 (unstable)

Suggested Read 📖

Using apt Commands in Linux [Ultimate Guide]This guide shows you how to use apt commands in Linux with examples so that you can manage packages effectively.It's FOSSAbhishek Prakash

From It's FOSS News via this RSS feed

Posted from this RSS feed via bot, see !meta@rss.ponder.cat

Posted from this RSS feed by RSSBot, see !meta@rss.ponder.cat