This Week in Open Source for July 25, 2025

A look around the world of open source

by Daryl Ducharme & amanda casari, Google Open Source Programs Office

We hope everyone is having a good summer. The world of open source is, with more events and news that caught our attention.

Upcoming Events

• July 31-August 3: FOSSY (Free and Open Source Software Yearly) will be held in Portland, Oregon and is focused on the creation and impact of free and open source software, uplifting contributors of all experience.
• August 14-16: Open Source Festival 2025 (OSCAFest'25) is happening in Lagos, Nigeria. It uses community to help integrate the act of open source contribution to African developers whilst strongly advocating the movement of free and open source software.
• August 25-27: Open Source Summit Europe (OSSEU) is happening in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is the premier event for the open source community to collaborate, share information, solve problems, and gain knowledge, furthering open source innovation and ensuring a sustainable open source ecosystem. Many Googlers will be there giving talks along with so many others.

Open Source Reads and Links

• [Press Release] Tech Veterans Anne Bertucio and Vinay Rao Join ROOST - A bit of a bittersweet post as our recent, now former Head of Open Source Programs Office, Anne Bertucio, joins ROOST as COO and the previous Head of Safeguards at Anthropic, Vinay Rao, joins as CTO.
• [Article] An open-source SDK for finding dead code - Maintaining dead code is a waste of resources. So, having good tools for finding dead code in your applications is important. The open sourcing of Reaper for iOS and Android applications might be a worthwhile part of your toolbelt.
• [Blog] Why I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft - Choosing the right license for your open source projects is a very personal choice. A choice that is worth revisiting once in a while to see if your values have shifted and if there are new ideas for what might constitute free software that better align with those new values.
• [Blog] Announcing FOKS: The Federated Open Key Service - Security and authentication are key to the tech world and open source is a good way to get many eyes on the problems to find solutions. A new federated open key service, FOKS, built from the ground up and based on concepts while working with Keybase is available now.
• [Article] Kubernetes Surges in Enterprise, But What Can Take It Mainstream? - Different teams in the development work streams have their own ideas about the tech stack. Many teams using Kubernetes have made it quite popular for use in enterprise work, but some are still using systems that have been tried and tested in their own domains. What work needs to be done to get all teams on-board with using Kubernetes?
• [Blog] Death by a thousand slops - The lead maintainer for the open source project, curl, continues to blog on where low-quality recommendations to curl's Bug Bounty program are increasing the work for the security team.
• [Article] From A2A to MCP, a look at the protocols that might one day help AI automate you out of a job - Click-bait headline aside, a good overview of where these protocols are at, what they do, and a certain view on whether that's useful or not. We have our opinions, but we are probably biased ;)
• [Article] How the Free Software Foundation battles the LLM bots - There are many bots out there crawling the web. In the early days of search, the solution was the robots.txt files and bots crawling the web slow enough for the systems to continue to run smoothly. However, many LLM bots are ignoring robots.txt, being greedy with site resources, and that's on top of other bot traffic to deal with. Looking at how a large organization approaches this current trend has some great shared knowledge.

What exciting open source events and news are you hearing about? Let us know on our @GoogleOSS X account.

Through a new long-term partnership with Energy Dome, we plan to support multiple commercial projects globally to deploy their LDES technology.

Apigee helps enterprises integrate large language models (LLMs) into existing API ecosystems securely and scalably, addressing challenges like authentication and authorization not fully covered by the evolving Model Context Protocol (MCP), and offering an open-source MCP server example that demonstrates how to implement enterprise-ready API security for AI agents.

Co-hosted by Ashley Oldacre and Christina Warren, People of AI podcast's Season 5 will focus on the builders in the space of AI, highlighting the unique journeys, challenges, and triumphs of these innovators.

Opal is a new experimental tool from Google Labs that helps you compose prompts into dynamic, multi-step mini-apps using natural language, removing the need for code, allowing users to build and deploy shareable AI apps with powerful features and seamless integration with existing Google tools.

The Dev channel has been updated to 140.0.7312.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux.

A partial list of changes is available in the Git log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.

Chrome Release Team
Google Chrome

Posted by Robbie McLachlan, Developer Marketing

They saw a problem and built the answer. Meet 20 #WeArePlay founders from across the U.S. who started their entrepreneurial journey with a question like: what if reading was no longer a barrier for anyone? What if an app could connect neighbors to fight local hunger? What if fitness or self-care could feel as engaging as playing a game?

These new stories showcase how innovation often starts with finding the answer to a personal problem. Here are just a few of our favorites:

Cliff’s app Speechify makes the written word accessible to all

Cliff, founder of SpeechifyMiami, Florida

Growing up with dyslexia, Cliff always wished he could enjoy books but found reading them challenging. After moving to the U.S., the then college student turned that personal challenge into a solution for millions. His app, Speechify, empowers people by turning any text—from PDFs to web pages—into audio. By making the written word accessible to all, Cliff’s innovation gives students, professionals, and auditory learners a new kind of independence.

Jenny’s game Run Legends turns everyday fitness into a social adventure

Jenny, founder of Talofa Games San Francisco, California

As a teen, Jenny funded her computer science studies by teaching herself to code and publishing over 100 games. A passionate cross-country runner, she wanted to combine her love for gaming and fitness to make exercise feel more like an adventure. The result is Run Legends, a multiplayer RPG where players battle monsters by moving in real life. Jenny’s on a mission to blend all types of exercise with playful storytelling, turning everyday fitness into a fun, social, and heroic quest.

Nino and Stephanie’s app Finch makes self-care a rewarding daily habit

Nino and Stephanie, co-founders of FinchSanta Clara, California

As engineers, Nino and Stephanie knew the power of technology but found the world of self-care apps overwhelming. Inspired by their own mental health journeys and a gamified app Stephanie built in college, they created Finch. The app introduces a fresh take on the virtual pet: by completing small, positive actions for yourself, like journaling or practicing breathing exercises, you care for your digital companion. With over 10 million downloads, Finch has helped people around the world build healthier habits. With seasonal events every month and growing personalization, the app continues to evolve to make self-care more fun and rewarding.

John’s app The HungreeApp connects communities to fight hunger

John, founder of The HungreeAppDenver, Colorado

John began coding as a nine-year-old in Nigeria, sometimes with just a pen and paper. After moving to the U.S., he was struck by how much food from events was wasted while people nearby went hungry. That spark led him to create The HungreeApp, a platform that connects communities with free, surplus food from businesses and restaurants. John’s ingenuity turns waste into opportunity, creating a more connected and resourceful nation, one meal at a time.

Anthony’s game studio Tech Tree Games turns a passion for idle games into cosmic adventures for aspiring tycoons

Anthony, founder of Tech Tree GamesAustin, Texas

While working as a chemical engineer, Anthony dreamed of creating an idle game like the ones he loved to play, leading him to teach himself how to code from scratch. This passion project turned into his studio Tech Tree Games and the hit title Idle Planet Miner, where players grow a space mining empire filled with mystical planets and alluring gems. After releasing a 2.0 update with enhanced visuals for the game, Anthony is back in prototyping mode with new titles in the pipeline.

Discover more #WeArePlay stories from the US and stories from across the globe.

Google Play Points members can earn prizes and rewards on Google Play and at Comic-Con®

We’re launching Web Guide, a Search Labs experiment that uses AI to intelligently organize the search results page, making it easier to find information and web pages.

Hi everyone! We've just released Chrome Dev 140 (140.0.7313.0) for Android. It's now available on Google Play.

You can see a partial list of the changes in the Git log. For details on new features, check out the Chromium blog, and for details on web platform updates, check here.

If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Chrome Release Team
Google Chrome