Font issues with the browsers installed using Flatpak

Font issues with the Flatpak versions of browsers like Brave, Firefox, and Google Chrome are common because the sandboxed applications cannot access system fonts. Using Flatseal to grant filesystem permissions usually resolves this.

Install the Flatseal app

Either use the software centre to install the app. Otherwise, apply the following command to install the Flatseal app,

flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

Run the app using the following command,

flatpak run com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

Select the browser, e.g. Chrome Flatpak. Scroll down to Filesystem. Under Other files, add the following paths:

xdg-config/fontconfig

~/.local/share/fonts

Restart the browser.

Setup Flatpak in Debian

Flatpak is a package management system for building and distributing desktop applications on Linux. It packages applications with all necessary dependencies, creating isolated containers (sandboxes) that prevent apps from tampering with the host system. Flatpak is ideal for easily getting the latest app versions.

Flatpak support is available in Debian 10 (Buster) and later. Here are the steps to install and enable Flatpak in the Debian operating system with the GNOME and KDE desktops:

Install Flatpak 

sudo apt install flatpak

For GNOME users

Install the Flatpak plugin for GNOME Software. 

sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak -y

For KDE users

Install the Plasma Discover Flatpak backend.

sudo apt install plasma-discover-backend-flatpak -y

Flathub is the best place to get Flatpak apps. Add the Flathub repository.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

To finish the setup, restart your system.

How to use Flatpak

New apps can be installed using the GNOME software centre.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and increased RAM usage: should we be concerned?

The Ubuntu 26.04 LTS version was released on April 23. Ubuntu is a key reason why Linux-based operating systems became popular for personal and educational use. The minimum RAM requirement for Ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute Raccoon) LTS has been increased to 6 GB, which poses a challenge for users with low-memory computers. Let's look at the facts behind this change.

Reasons for concern

Most users currently have laptops and desktops with low RAM (probably 4 GB). To run the new Ubuntu version effectively, they will need to upgrade their RAM. This increased RAM requirement will be difficult for Ubuntu users. RAM prices have risen significantly in 2026. This current price increase is due to massive demand from AI companies and a decrease in consumer-market RAM production. Large data centres that run AI services like ChatGPT need huge amounts of RAM. These data centres use RAM with higher capacity than standard computers. Manufacturers are prioritising these large companies (Microsoft, Google, Meta) for profit. This has led to reduced RAM availability for regular consumers.

Another technical reason is the shift from older DDR4 to newer DDR5. As manufacturers reduced DDR4 production, its price started to rise. At the same time, because DDR5 production is still not sufficient, it is also being sold at a high price. A major change in this situation is only expected toward the end of 2026.

Why was the RAM requirement raised?

There are technical and operational reasons for the increased hardware requirements (System Requirements) for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
The GNOME Desktop Environment used by Ubuntu includes more modern visual effects and features with each update. The same applies to the KDE Desktop used by Kubuntu. These need more memory to run smoothly.
Today's web browsers and other applications require a large amount of RAM just to run. When using Firefox or Chrome, opening just a few tabs can push RAM usage close to 1 GB.
More RAM is needed for background services like system security, indexing, automatic updates, and cloud services to run without interruption.

What is the solution?

The primary solution is to upgrade your RAM capacity. However, new RAM is very expensive. Used RAM can be purchased at lower prices from online stores. You can buy an old 4 GB RAM to increase your current 4 GB to 8 GB. If your computer does not have 6 GB of RAM, you can use versions like Lubuntu or Xubuntu instead of Ubuntu. These are designed to run faster on low RAM. However, the new versions of Xubuntu and Lubuntu also have higher RAM usage. Alternatively, Debian Linux can be used to make old computers run quickly.