I’ve been using Ant Renamer for years, the batch renamer Antoine Potten wrote in Delphi 7. The original version reached 2.13 and was only available on Windows. and once I started spending more time on Linux, it was one of the tools I missed. So I asked Antoine if I could port it. He agreed, and I rewrote it in C++ with Qt 6. It’s still GPL v2 and his name is still on it.

The basic idea hasn’t changed. You stack operations and run them as one job: replace, insert, move or delete text, numbering, case changes, regex, date/time formatting, random names, names from a list. You get a preview before anything is touched, you can revert a job afterwards, and there’s a command-line mode if you’d rather script it.

It can also build names from metadata: EXIF, IPTC and XMP for photos, ID3 for music.

The photo side is where I spent most of my time. .xmp and .dop sidecars get renamed with their images, and they follow along when you revert too. JPG and RAW files that share a base name get the same number, so pairs stay pairs.

Compared to the original, I also added IPTC/XMP support, wildcards in replace, a filter that only shows files whose names will actually change, an optional modern layout, and user guides plus recipe collections in English and French.

It’s a release candidate for a reason. The core engine has automated tests, and I ran the latest build on a real batch of DNG and JPG files with their sidecars and the renaming worked as expected.. But that’s still just me, on my own machines. I’d really like to hear from people on other distros, and from anyone with a large photo library who’s willing to try it on a copy of their library and see what breaks.

• Downloads (Windows installer + portable ZIP, .deb for amd64/arm64, AppImage): https://github.com/morfredus/ant-renamer-qt/releases/tag/v3.0.0-rc.10
• Source: https://github.com/morfredus/ant-renamer-qt
• Original project: https://www.antp.be/software/renamer/

Bug reports, ideas and PRs are all welcome.

Hi everyone! I’m building Xodus Nexus, an open-source desktop launcher that lets you install and run Microsoft Store PC games on Linux, including games available through PC Game Pass.

This is a solo project I work on in my spare time, built on top of Xodus. My goal is to make the process approachable: sign in with your Microsoft account, find a game in your library, download it and hit Play.

The launcher now includes:

• A library combining games you own, games available through your subscription and local installations, with search and filters.
• Update notifications for the launcher, plus backend and runtime updates through Settings.

It’s available as an AppImage. The backend and runtime can be downloaded from Settings, so there’s no need to compile them yourself.

Current manually tested results:

• Gears of War: E-Day, playable online.
• Deep Rock Galactic, playable online.
• Minecraft Dungeons II, playable online.
• No Man’s Sky, playable online.
• Forza Horizon 6, playable online.
• Palworld, playable online.
• Valor Mortis, fully playable.

Xbox sign-in and cloud saves also work in supported games.

This is still experimental, not a promise that your whole Game Pass library will work. Some games run, others have missing functionality or won’t launch. I keep a compatibility list with actual test results.

You need your own Microsoft account and a valid purchase or subscription. This isn’t a source of free games, and the project isn’t affiliated with Microsoft or Xbox.

Code, downloads, screenshots and compatibility:
github.com/domsvoboda/xodus-nexus

If you try it, I’d appreciate feedback on both the launcher and game compatibility. Tell me your distro, the game you tried and how far you got, including whether sign-in, gameplay, saves and multiplayer worked. Reports help me decide what to tackle next.

For transparency, I use AI tools during reverse engineering.

A few days ago I shared Tagos Transcribe, a free offline Linux app for transcription and dubbing. Based on feedback, it now has a third mode: Voiceover.

- Paste text or open a .txt/.srt, pick a language, voice and speed, preview, export WAV or MP3

- .srt can be voiced on subtitle timings (--timed)

- One click sends a transcript straight to Voiceover

- YouTube-ready SRT (max 2 lines × 42 chars, ≤7 s per cue) and auto chapters ("0:00 Title")

- All Piper voices per language, plus new English ones (amy, ryan, joe, kristin, jenny)

Everything runs locally, no accounts, no limits. MIT, Linux only for now.

github.com/tagoslabs/tagos-transcribe

Feedback welcome, especially on which voices sound best to you.

Always a priority to provide native Linux support!