OMG! Ubuntu!: Recent Episodes
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Linux Mint has announced an overhaul in its kernel management, and will now automatically delete old kernels once a week. Kernel management is moving out of Update Manager and into the System Administration tool on both standard and LMDE versions and it will now tracks kernels by series rather than individual versions. You’ll get to choose which kernel series’ are tracked and how many older kernels within each series the system should keep (in addition to the one you’re booted on; it doesn’t yank out the rug under its own feet). Updates for tracked series’ kernels continue to appear in […]
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A refreshed Linux Mint 22.3 (Zena) OS installer is available for download, powered by Linux kernel 7.0. The distro made the first Linux Mint 22.3 HWE ISO available in March, with an installer that boots Linux 6.17 by default. That image remains available to download alongside the newest one, which boots Linux 7.0, and the original Linux Mint 22.3 (Zena) ISO that boots Linux 6.14. The Linux Mint HWE images provide the same core Linux Mint 22.3 experience, still based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, but it all sits on top of a refreshed hardware stack. Existing Mint users don’t need […]
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I was flummoxed to read a report on how much memory Microsoft’s Weather app uses on Windows 11 – more than 1GB just to render what is, ostensibly, a fancy table of stats. Less surprising is that the GNOME Weather app does the same job for under a fifth of the reported Windows figure, while Mousam, my go-to weather app, uses around a third of Microsoft’s effort (and with a nicer design, too). Not everyone on Windows 11 is seeing memory usage as high as the 1.1GB figure given in Windows Latest viral post. But when I check on my […]
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Kagi has released a new beta of Orion for Linux, a WebKitGTK-based port of its popular browser for macOS and IOS. Orion for Linux v0.4.1 builds on the v0.3.0 public beta, released in May, adding more features found on its macOS and iOS versions and improving existing ones. The new beta adds working private windows, a functional (if bare-bones) download manager and a toolbar overflow menu. The overflow menu lets you hide buttons out of the way but without making them hard to reach. Orion’s link preview feature also makes its way to Linux. This isn’t the ‘AI summary’ sort […]
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An updated version of Dynamic Music Pill, the GNOME Shell extension to put now playing track info and lyrics in your panel or dock with animated flourishes, is out. If you’re prone some desk-side crooning, Dynamic Music Pill v1.3.0 brings two new lyrics provider APIs, BetterLyrics and BiniLyrics, with TTML parsing to provide word-by-word karaoke-style highlighting. If there’s word-level synced lyrics for the track being played, the extension shows them in the applet controller (click on the album art inside of to access the lyrics view) or the panel, depending on how you’ve configured it: Dynamic Music Pill can show […]
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A new bug-fix release of Calibre, the open-source e-book manger, view and converter, is available for download. Calibre 9.13 fixes a number of PDF-related issues, including a conversion error that could occur on Linux distributions shipping an ‘ancient’ version of the libxml2 library, which is mainly older Debian installs. The cause was a clash between Qt’s GPU detection and Calibre’s PDF parser, which both need different versions of libxml2. Calibre now preloads the version it needs before Qt’s check can interfere, per the commit message. A regression in the Calibre 9.x series was causing internal links in PDF documents to […]
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Resources 51 beta, the system monitor Ubuntu now uses, adds AMD NPU stats, PowerPC CPU temps and alternative memory-usage metrics.
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Rhythmbox 3.5.0 is out and it now lets you sync podcast subscriptions and listening progress across apps – the standout feature in the music player’s first major release in nine months
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Fans of the Papirus icon theme will be pleased to hear there’s a new update – the first since May 2025. Papirus’s first update in 2026 (the tardiness of which its maintainer, Serhii Yeremenko, apologises for) brings more than 80 new or updated icons spanning applications, games and user-interface icons, plus new file-mimetypes and revised symlinks. Frequent updates are why Papirus icons are popular with Linux users, and they have been for many years. Often, Linux icon packs debut with a big bang; launch momentum fuels a couple of revisions, but then things go quiet as people and maintainers move on. Papirus […]
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Dropbeat is a new riff on an old tune, a panel-based music applet for GNOME Shell that gives you an alternate way to pause, play and skip tracks in MPRIS-friendly Linux media players. Applets of this ilk are legion, and this panel applet doesn’t do anything that different to ones you may have tried in the past or currently use. But it does do some things differently. When installed, it adds a button to your panel that, when clicked, “shows a cool card to control your media player”, to quote the project’s GitHub. Dropbeat uses imagemagick to generate the blurred […]
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Ubuntu is moving hwctl from Deb package to snap-only distribution, a change Canonical says improves security and desktop integration.
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Ubuntu 26.04 LTS’s minimal cloud images have been missing curl – accidentally, it turns out, so Canonical has put it back. Curl is a commonly-used command-line tool for fetching files from remote servers. It’s called on in countless install scripts, CI pipelines and one-liners you’ve no doubt pasted into your terminal without thinking twice about. But the package has been missing from the server-cloud-minimal images of 26.04 to date. That caught those running pared-back cloud installs unawares, breaking expected workflows, has it had been available in previous versions. The manual fix is to install curl from the repos which, in […]
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If you spent July dodging the summer heatwave, catch up on the best Linux app releases and updates you might have missed last month in this roundup. You likely already know about the Firefox 153 release, with its “new” container tabs confusing those who swear they’ve had ’em for ages. That update also enabled rounded window bottom corners on GTK-based Linux desktops, Ubuntu included. Slick system monitor Mission Center also dropped a big update, so if you like swotting over resource stats, don’t sleep on checking that out. Something you can safely sleep on: Anthropic’s Linux beta of its Claude […]
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Times are literally changing and Ubuntu’s keeping pace – well, kinda. In November, most of Canada will turn its clocks back an hour, but the Western Canadian province of Alberta won’t. It’s decided to stay on daylight saving time permanently rather than fall back to standard time. Meanwhile, in September, Morocco is doing the reverse: after eight years of running an hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, it’s going back to GMT. So Ubuntu has updated its tzdata package so that users in either location – or anyone travelling to them – have systems in sync time-wise. The update refreshes the database […]
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Some Linux desktop environments were developed over decades, others in just a few years. Starling, which made the rounds online this week, claims to have been built by just one person in six months using AI coding tools. What’s more, a preview build is available as a .deb to install on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Yup, this isn’t a ChatGPT mockup but a real working demo. According to the project’s GitHub and website, a developer used AI to rewrite Flutter’s framework layer from Dart to Swift, and left its C++ rendering engine unchanged. A traditional desktop uses a windowing system but […]
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Mosaic brings automatic tiling to GNOME Shell, but without asking you to use it permanently. Turn it on when you want windows to arrange themselves, turn it off when you want floating windows back. The extension works with GNOME 45 and up, adding a toggle to Quick Settings to enable the auto-tiling mode. When off, you’re in floating mode (which still has tiling features). Expand the toggle to access more options or get at Mosaic’s settings. It’s the easy on-demand nature that makes Mosaic different to similar extensions that exist. When the auto-tiling mode is active (the toggle is turned […]
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Ubuntu’s hardware enablement (HWE) effort has expanded to include backports of newer virtualisation tech to users of the current LTS release. The virtualization HWE stack from Canonical will let users benefit from newer versions of QEMU, libvirt and related firmware on top of their exiting LTS install, refreshed every 6 months for 2 years, without the need to seek out via third-party repos. Or, to quote Canonical’s Ijlal Loutfi, it gives companies “the operational confidence of an LTS release, with a path to newer virtualization capabilities when they need them”. If you’re not familiar with the HWE, it’s what brings newer […]
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Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0 is out with notch support, phone printing and an upgraded web browser – Chromium jumps from version 87 to 131 in one go.
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A new version of the GTK-based music player Rhythmbox has been released, the first major update in over a year. Rhythmbox 3.4.8 is billed as a ‘minor improvement release’ so there are no shiny new features or (some would say overdue) UI changes to speak of. But there are plenty of bug fixes and smaller quality enhancements worth knowing about. Although primarily used to listen and manage local music files, Rhythmbox supports network shares, podcasts, radio streaming, and integration with online services like Magnatune and Last.FM. In this release the app picks up a number of podcast improvements, including better […]
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Ubuntu 25.04 plans to include a new default PDF viewer app. Evince (aka Document Viewer) is the PDF app Ubuntu preinstalls at present. In fact, I can’t recall using a version of Ubuntu that didn’t have it in! Next April’s release of Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ will replace it with a new app called Papers. Papers is a modern GTK4/libadwaita app that is able to ‘view, search and annotate documents’ saved in a variety of different formats (not only PDF, but PDF is the certainly most ubiquitous in every-day needs). But why switch? What’s wrong with Evince? Why is a […]
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Framework make the most exciting laptops around —I don’t own one to be able to say they’re good, but the modular components, and upgradeable and repairable ethos is unlike anything else. As news earlier this year that owners would be able to swap their Intel-based mainboard for a RISC-V mainboard underscores. Well, there’s now an update on that front. DeepComputing (makers of the Ubuntu-powered DC-ROMA II laptop and Pad II tablet) just launched an early access program for thee DC-ROMA RISC-V Mainboard, designed for the Framework Laptop 13. The mainboard is also compatible with the Framework and Cooler Master Case […]
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Back in the spring, VMware did something unexpected: it made its desktop hypervisor software free to download and use on Windows, macOS, and Linux. No trial period, no in-app purchases, no feature limitations; the full version of VMware Workstation Pro (Windows, Linux) and Fusion Pro (macOS) for free. The “catch” was that it was only free for personal use. Businesses, educators, freelancers, and developers who planned to use the software for so-called ‘commercial’ purposes were asked to be honest and pay for a license. Now, that’s no longer needed. Why is VMware Workstation Pro Now Free? Both VMware Workstation Pro […]
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MPRIS is something most of us associate with music apps and movie players, but a new app makes use of this freedesktop standard for something less entertaining: timers. Yes, timers. Timing your pizza in the oven, setting a deadline for a task, dedicating time to a hobby, or obsessively counting down to a date (figurative or romantic), MPRIS Timer does it just as well as anything else – with a twist: it shows your timer using MPRIS. MPRIS stands for ‘Media Player Remote Interfacing Specification’. It is a Freedesktop standard that gives app makers an accessible, consistent API to target […]
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For a pinch more personalisation of Ubuntu 24.10 check out Auto Accent Colour, a new GNOME Shell extension that changes the system accent colour based on your current desktop wallpaper. Accent colours are a headline feature in GNOME 47, although not new to Ubuntu users since Ubuntu added its own approach to accent colours back in 2022. Now aligned with upstream, this new GNOME Shell extension is going to interest Ubuntu users who don’t wan the hassle of handpicking an accent colour to suit their wallpaper – instead, letting their wallpaper pick the accent colour! Auto Accent Colour GNOME Extension […]
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Calibre ebook manager, converter, and reader is out with a new update, and it adds an enticing sounding new feature. For a while now Calibre has offered a ‘read aloud’ feature that does exactly what you think it does: a computer voice reads the text of an ePUB book. Calibre 7.21 intros a “new tool to create an audio overlay in EPUB files for all text using the Read aloud facility”. This, it says, enables readers to listen with sentence tracking, and assign different voices to different parts of the book’s text. Interestingly, Calibre say using the new tool can […]
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GNOME 47 ‘Denver’ proved a decent update to the GNOME desktop, delivering a hearty dose of new features, UI refinements, and app improvements. As those of you using Ubuntu 24.10 are no-doubt enjoying. But as one release goes out, work on the next begins… GNOME 48: Release Schedule GNOME 48 ‘Bengaluru‘ (named after the host city of the GNOME Asia Summit taking place in December) is scheduled for release on March 19, 2025. And these are the dates for important development milestones along the way, offering opportunity to implement, add, and integrate changes, the necessary “freeze” to solidify the desired […]
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Raspberry Pi has unveiled another low-price own-brand product, this time a 4-port USB 3.0 hub compatible with most of its single-board computers. In the past few months we’ve seen the company expand its range of official accessories and add-ons to encompass everything from AI HATs to SD cards and SSDs guaranteed to contain the right tech to ensure Pi owners get the best possible performance. Most popular Pi models include a number of on-board USB ports, some folks need or want more, which is why the company is launching an official Raspberry Pi USB 3 Hub. Cheekily, it pitches this as […]
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It’s been a while since the gorgeous (if admittedly gimmicky) Burn My Windows GNOME Shell extension added a new effect to appease fans of over-the-top window closing and opening animations. I.e., folks like moi ;3 But the latest release, Burn My Windows v44, now rolling out through the GNOME Extensions website, dutifully delivers one – and a rather dreamy one at that! Called Focus, the new effect is a subtle, more considered offering compared to other animations available in the app. It combines a blur and fade effect on close (or open), as you may glimpse in the GIF embedded […]
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Sweeping staffing cuts have fallen at The Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Mozilla tasked with advocating for web standards, internet privacy, and open-source. A huge 30% reduction in head count at the foundation cleaves away the entirety of the dedicated advocacy division, according to an internal memo seen by TechCrunch (and since confirmed to them and other press outlets by Mozilla). “The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all,” Brandon Borrman, vice president of communications at Mozilla is quoted […]
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If it feels like the next major release of open source image editor The GIMP has been in the works forever, know that anticipation for its arrival has been building longer still – yet the wait will soon be over. Today, a GIMP 3.0 release candidate was tagged for release. This gives creatives eager to see what new features Wilber has in store for them the opportunity to find out first-hand, with fewer bugs and quirks getting in their way than development and beta builds. This post isn’t going to provide a blow-by-blow rundown of the best new features in […]
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Raspberry Pi has announced a new version of its 7-inch ‘Touch Display’ accessory. And given that the previous model was announced 9 years ago, some kind of update was arguably due for this device. The Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 runs at a higher-resolution display than its predecessor, and uses a slimmer form factor now that the display driver board is integrated into the enclosure itself, streamlining the end setup. Yet despite those upgrades, the price point hasn’t changed: it still costs $60/£56 No details on the brightness, contrast, etc for the new model, and it’s notably described as offering […]
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Something to file under “won’t please many Linux users, but is nonetheless a good thing™ for choice”, Apple Maps on the web now works on Linux. Apple launched a web-based version of Apple Maps in beta in July, bringing its mapping service to non-Apple platforms for the very first time (the app comes preinstalled on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS). In an ideal world, any web-based service should work everywhere. But in the less-than-ideal world we actually live in, it often doesn’t. Initially, ‘Apple Maps on web’ (as Cupertino is calling it) only worked in Safari on macOS and iOS, and […]
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Linux Mint has announced it’s adding a native Night Light feature to the Cinnamon desktop. Earlier versions of Linux Mint included a third-party app called Redshift to provide similar ‘blue light’ filtering functionality. However, when the Mozilla location service shut down earlier this year the geo-location capabilities powering Redshift (which allowed the feature to automatically start at sunset for a user’s location) stopped working. Linux Mint’s developers felt asking its users to work-around the breakage by entering their location’s longitude and latitude coordinates manually in the app was a tough ask given its a distro focused on and famed for […]
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System76’s COSMIC desktop environment continues to take shape, with a third alpha snapshot now available for testing. The first alpha brought the core essentials, the second alpha delivered stack of new features, and this third alpha fills in gaps, fixes issues, and finesses the user experience further. Of note, COSMIC now lets you set a custom system font (if Fira Sans isn’t your fave), and boosts accessibility with initial support for the Orca screen reader, albeit not in native COSMIC apps just yet – accessibility is a priority, so “soon” hopefully. Other things I noticed: COSMIC Files gains a hover […]
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Python has overtaken JavaScript as the most-used language on GitHub, according to the code-hosting platform’s latest Octoverse report. The company attributes this momentum to a massive influx of “data science and machine learning on GitHub”, which has seen a 59% increase in the number of contributions to generative AI projects. With Python being heavily used across ML, data science, and related fields, the rise makes sense – it’s less that traditional software developers are switching to Python but more that developers working with AI-related projects are needing to use it. Plus, it’s good news for open source, with GitHub reporting […]
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It’s hallowe’en, and there’s a frightfully good treat waiting for fans of the free, open-source racing game SuperTuxKart – a new beta! The first beta of SuperTuxKart 1.5 offers an array of improvements, touching everything from the underlying game engine to the user-interface through to networking features and score announcements during online multi-player races. No new tracks, karts, characters, or items included this time (those are planned for SuperTuxKart 2.0 along with a myriad of other major changes) but there is a new music track for the Das Luna Arena. Other SuperTuxKart 1.5 beta 1 changes: Naturally, there’s also a […]
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The latest stable update to Google Chrome improves its Memory Saver with new controls that could, depending on your workflow and hardware, help reduce the browser’s memory footprint. And some would say it needs it. Google Chrome has a rep for being a memory hog. But is it deserved? Once upon a time, perhaps. Yet whenever people do tests they tend to find that Chrome’s RAM usage is less egregious than popular opinion would contend. Anecdotally, many users still say otherwise. Which is perhaps why the latest update to Google’s dominant web browser introduces 3 new options to control the existing […]
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Ubuntu developers today announced that Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ is officially open for development. There’s even a release date: Ubuntu 25.04 is out on April 17, 2025. Still, that’s a way off; there are 6 months of development stretching out ahead of us. But looking in to the distance one can’t help but wonder what new features Ubuntu 25.04 will offer. It’s too early in the release cycle to know, although GNOME 48, a newer Linux kernel (likely 6.14), and Snap app improvements are all-but a given. Still, would it be too much to hope that the Plucky cycle finally […]
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A new version of NetworkManager – used by most Linux distributions (including Ubuntu) to manage wired and wireless network connections – was released this week. NetworkManager 1.50 won’t be included in Ubuntu 24.10 (that ships with v1.48) but I think some of the changes it makes may be worth knowing about all the same. Notably, NetworkManager 1.50 now formally deprecates support for dhclient in favour of its own internal DHCP client. The former is now no longer be built “…unless explicitely (sic) enabled, and will be removed in a future release.” Will this have a major issue? Unlikely; NetworkManager began […]
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There are plenty of ways to download videos from well-known video streaming sites on Ubuntu but I find Parabolic the easiest, least hassle option out there. For those yet to hear about it, Parabolic is a GTK4/libadwaita app for Linux (or a Qt one for Windows) that offers what it describes as a ‘basic frontend’ to yt-dlp. All sites supported by yt-dlp are supported in this app. Paste in a URL, validate, and download. Parabolic lets you download multiple videos simultaneously and save them to popular video or audio formats; sign-in with account details (if needed) and see the credentials to […]
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A few months ago I reported that Mozilla is getting a brand revamp and that it incorporates the non-profit company’s iconic red dinosaur mascot – now I have a lick more info. A reader, Nicolas, recently pointed me to the website of global design agency Jones Knowles Ritchie, who Mozilla hired to update, refine, and revitalise its brand identity. As design agencies go, Jones Knowles Ritchie has considerable cultural cache having worked with major world-famous brands, ranging from Burger King to Budweiser – and now web browser maker Mozilla. Their website has a dedicated page to showcase their work on […]
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Pine64 has confirmed that its open-source e-ink tablet is returning. The PineNote was announced in 2021, building on the success of its non-SBC devices like the PinePhone (and later Pro model), the PineTab, and PineBook devices. Like most of Pine64’s devices, software support is largely tackled by the community. But only a small natch of developer units were ever sold, primarily by enthusiasts within the open-source community who had the knowledge and desire to work on getting a modern Linux OS to run on the hardware, and adapt to the e-ink display. That process has taken a while, as Pine64’s […]
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A chorus of improvements are on offer in the newest update to the popular open source, cross-platform Audacious music player. Audacious 4.4.1 builds on the changes introduced in Audacious 4.4 (a release that brought GTK3 and Qt6 UI choices, the return of a dedicated lyrics plugin, and better compatibility with PipeWire) rather than adding any huge new features of its own. But that’s no bad thing; finesse, fix ’em ups, and extended support for existing features are as welcome as gaudy new GUI elements to me. Notable changes include: The change-log also says the PulseAudio plugin is now preferred over […]
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Mozilla Firefox 131 is now available to download with a small set of improvements in tow. The first change I noticed when opening Firefox 131 is the new icon for the ‘all tabs’ feature1. Previously a small downward pointing arrow, this new—more obvious— icon is a small squarish depiction of a tabbed web browser. The change was made ahead of vertical tabs (upcoming feature) that moves this button to the toolbar if vertical tabs are enabled. Mozilla say “hovering the mouse over an unfocused tab will now display a visual preview of its contents”. Tab hover previews were sort of […]
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If you’re looking to kick the tyres on some AI image processing/recognition tasks and you own an older Raspberry Pi, the new AI Camera add-on may be of interest. While the $70 Raspberry Pi AI Kit only works with a Raspberry Pi 5, the $70 AI camera works with all of the Raspberry Pi boards which boast the relevant camera connector port (spoiler: most, including the Raspberry Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi 400). This product is the fruits of Raspberry Pi’s ongoing partnership with Sony Semiconductor Solutions, using the latter’s IMX500 image sensor and boasting a 12.3 MP resolution that […]
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As revealed last month, Linux Mint is working on an improved default theme for the Cinnamon desktop – and today we got our first look at what’s coming. The way Cinnamon looks in Linux Mint (the distribution) is not the way it looks if you install the Cinnamon desktop yourself on a different distro. There, assuming a theme pack is isn’t pulled in as a dependency, you’ll see the default built-in Cinnamon theme. And it’s that built-in theme that Linux Mint is currently improving. Mint says “the new default theme [is] much darker and contrasted than before. Objects are rounded […]
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A major new release of Mission Center, a modern system monitor app for Linux desktops, has been released. Fans of this Rust-based GTK4/libadwaita system monitoring tool (which to address the recurring elephant in the room does indeed have a user interface inspired by—now I’d argue superior to—the Windows system monitor app) will find a lot to like in the latest update. I’m not going to recap all of this tool’s existing features in this post as I’ve covered this app a few times in the past. The Mission Center homepage has more details for the uninitiated. Instead, I’m going focus […]
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Oracle has release a new maintenance update for VirtualBox, its open-source virtualisation software. VirtualBox 7.1.2 is the first such point release since the VirtualBox 7.1 series debuted earlier this month. Naturally, it builds on that major release with a flurry of big fixes, performance finesse, and UI refinements, and adds a few new features. Among them, the latest version adds support for a multi-window layout, gives users the option to choose remote display security method, and fixes for a 3D acceleration-related quirks, including black screens in Windows VMs and minor rendering issues. A bug fixes ensures virtual machines created using […]
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If you’ve cast a half-glazed eye over Linux social media feeds at some point in the past few days you may have caught wind that a huge Linux security flaw was about to be disclosed. And today it was: a remote code execution flaw affecting the CUPS printing stack used in most major desktop Linux distributions (including Ubuntu, and also Chrome OS). With a severity score of 9.9 it’s right at the edge of the most severe vulnerabilities possible. The CUPS Security Vulnerability Canonical explains in its security blog: “At its core, the vulnerability is exploited by tricking CUPS into […]
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Chocks away —British saying, don’t stare at me weirdly— as the second alpha of System76’s homegrown COSMIC desktop environment has been released. To make it easy for us all to try out the latest improvements a second alpha build of Pop!_OS 24.04 is also available to download. Those who installed the first Pop!_OS 24.04 alpha don’t need to re-install. All of the improvements in this post are available as software updates via the COSMIC App Store. Not that anyone needs to use Pop!_OS to try the COSMIC. This Rust-based DE is also available to test on a wide range of […]
You're reading COSMIC DE Alpha 2 Released, This is What’s New, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 24.10 supports the Snapdragon-powered Lenovo ThinkPad X13s laptop in the official ‘generic’ ARM64 ISO — a notable change. Although it is possible to use Ubuntu 23.10 on the Thinkpad X13s it requires using of a custom ISO spun-up specifically for this device. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS had no official installer image for this device (it is possible to upgrade to 24.04 from 23.10, albeit with caveats). But with the arrival of Ubuntu 24.10 in October, the standard Ubuntu ARM64 ISO (which works much like a regular Intel/AMD ISO, with a live session and guided installer) will happily boot on this […]
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There’s one feature in the Nautilus file manager I use daily: the Recent files shortcut. One-click brings up a pseudo-folder showing all of my recently downloaded, modified, and newly created files, regardless of which folders they’re in. I find this grouping dead handy – but I accept it’s also dead revealing too. Which is why not everyone likes this feature. Individual files can be hidden from view manually, but that’s effort. Since ‘Recent’ is pinned at the top of the sidebar, it’s easy to accidentally click it. Not an issue for most of us at home, but for those in […]
You're reading How to Disable the ‘Recent’ Files Section in Nautilus, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you’re looking for a no-fuss way to see real-time energy consumption on your Ubuntu laptop as you use it, a new GNOME Shell extension makes this deliciously easy. “Why would I want to see energy usage?” – anyone asking that question probably doesn’t. This is more for the curious folk; those keen to reveal the relative power demands of the software they run, the tasks they perform, they hardware settings they use, and the devices they connect – more of an educational tool than an essential one. Of course, you can monitor power consumption on Linux without any extension. […]
You're reading See Real-Time Power Usage (in Watts) in Ubuntu’s Top Panel, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A beta of Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole’ is now available to download – a day later than planned! Developers and non-developers alike can download the beta to try the new features in Ubuntu 24.10, check compatibility, and flag any issue for fixing before the stable release takes flight next month. “The Beta images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper image build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of 24.10 that should be representative [the final release]”, says Canonical’s Utkarsh Gupta. This is the only beta release planned, though a release candidate will follow in few […]
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Vivaldi web browser has arrived on the Canonical Snap Store – officially. This closed-source, Chromium-based web browser has been available on Linux since its debut in 2015, providing an official DEB package for Ubuntu users (which adds an APT repo for ongoing updates). And last year it became possible to get Vivaldi on Flathub – though that Flatpak build is only semi-official: maintained and packaged by a Vivaldi engineer, but not a recommended or supported package by Vivaldi itself – not yet, anyway! So to hear Vivaldi is embracing the Snap format is an interesting, albeit not surprising, move. It’s […]
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Zorin OS 17.2 is available to download, bringing users a welcome set of enhancements. The latest release in the Zorin OS 17 series, still based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, is described by the team as the “most capable, customisable, and compatible version yet”. Exciting – what’s changed? Well, Zorin OS 17.2 adds new options to its bespoke Zorin Appearance application. Users can now change cursor theme in this one-stop personalisation tool, and now install third-party themes they download from elsewhere. Additionally, the theme section links to a guide that details how to restyle apps which uses libadwaita thanks to “an […]
You're reading Zorin OS 17.2 Released, Powered by Linux Kernel 6.8, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole’ will be released on October 13th, and as you’d expect from a new version of Ubuntu, it’s packed with new features. As a short-term release, Ubuntu 24.10 gets nine months of ongoing updates, security patches, and critical fixes. It’s not a long support window. However, Ubuntu 25.04 will be released in April of next year (six months later) and users of 24.10 can upgrade to 25.04 directly. Enough about releases next year; let’s focus on this one. In this post I run through the best Ubuntu 24.10 features, changes, and enhancements. Keep in mind that everything you […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.10: The Best New Features, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
VS Code is to modern text editors what Chromium is to browsers: a fork magnet. A slew of niche spins have emerged, each putting their own spin on Microsoft’s massively popular original. The latest to join the fray is Void. The GitHub page for Void describes it as an open-source alternative to Cursor. Cursor is a subscription-based, cross-platform AI-powered text editor (and VS Code fork) that has gained considerable attention. It offers AI-powered code completion, predictive coding, code generation, edit suggestions, and predictive cursor positioning. Developers working on AI at companies like OpenAI and MidJourney are reportedly fans of Cursor. […]
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Using the Chromium snap app? If you are, and you use Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) or install websites as ‘apps’ there’s a bug fix coming that should improve their behaviour on Ubuntu. When you install a PWA1 in the Chromium snap you might expect it to open it in a separate, streamlined window when you open it using its shortcut in the applications grid. Presently, PWAs in the Chromim Snap don’t get detected as separate instances by GNOME Shell. This means no separate dock icon (it is grouped into Chromium’s) and it is not treated as a separate app by […]
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Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux kernel 6.11, which is the kernel version Ubuntu 24.10 and Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS will offer. Fittingly, this update arrives a few days before the Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit takes place in Vienna, Austria. In his message to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to sign-off on the release Torvalds’ writes: “I’m once again on the road and not in my normal timezone, but it’s Sunday afternoon here in Vienna, and 6.11 is out”, and asks kernel devs to “give the latest release a try” before getting stuck in with the 6.12 merge window, […]
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You don’t need to own a Raspberry Pi to make use of the Raspberry Pi Imager. This nifty image writer makes flashing ISO, IMG, and similar files to USB drives and SD cards mighty easy. A new update, Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9, was released this week with some big changes. For one, this open-source and cross-platform image writing tool now uses Qt 6. This framework uplift offers a stack of underlying improvements in terms of stability, plus visual changes too. Raspberry Pi say the Qt 6 port provides “a lightly refreshed UI throughout on all platforms.” Comparing the Qt 6 […]
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There’s a clutch of new features in Ubuntu 24.10, but plenty of smaller, less obvious fixes for “paper cuts” – a decades-long issue with thumbnails in the GTK file picker among them. Feeling deja-vu? GNOME 44 (shipped in Ubuntu 23.04) included a thumbnail grid in the GTK file picker to make it quicker and easier to select the right files to upload, or open in an app, and so on. A feature long overdue, resolving a “bug” which had been open for 20 years! Only, there is a bit of a problem with how it works — some of you […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.10 Fixes a Pesky File Picker Paper-Cut, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The fifth and final point release to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is now available to download. This update was due to be released a couple of weeks ago but was delayed by a delay in getting Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS out the door – something had to give, so the release date of this update slipped. But it’s here now, ready to download. Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS brings a freshly-spun installer image (ISO) that includes all of the software, security, and stability updates released since the last ISO was made. This cuts down on the number of updates that have to downloaded after […]
You're reading Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS Released with Linux Kernel 6.8, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
All keybindings accessible from one place
You're reading Tiling Shell Adds Option to Show Border Around Focused Window, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The Cinnamon desktop environment looks pretty nice on Linux Mint, but if you install it on other distributions it doesn’t look as good — but that’s about to change. In his latest monthly mail-shot, distro lead Clement Lefebvre says the “ugly” default Cinnamon theme, which is maintained for trouble-shooting and testing purpose and is not the theme Linux Mint itself sets as default, will be “much improved” in Cinnamon 5.4. “In our distribution the focus is on Mint-Y. The default Cinnamon theme […] rarely gets attention from theme artists,” he says. “Ideally, it is the responsibility of the distributions to […]
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A new version of the Power Profiles Daemon is out, bringing a number of improvements to improve power efficiency on Linux desktops, particularly on AMD devices. For those unfamiliar with it, power-profiles-daemon is a low-level component to provide power handling over DBus. Ever used the Power Mode options in the Quick Settings menu in GNOME Shell? Those options interface through this. Now that power-profiles-daemon is battery-level aware, power drivers like the Intel and AMD P-State drivers can (where supported) adjust power management based on the current battery level value. “In particular both the AMD panel power action now uses a […]
You're reading New Version of Power Profiles Daemon Improves AMD Support, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mozilla Firefox 130 is out with a variety of changes that make this phenomenally popular open-source web browser a touch more productive. On Linux, Firefox 130 enables overscroll animations by default, having added them on other platforms a few years back. This is a familiar visual effect from mobile systems: when you try to scroll beyond the edge content an elastic animation indicates “nu-uh”. To save anyone being confused, the new (on Linux) Firefox over-scroll animations only play if you’re using a touchpad/trackpad to overscroll. You won’t see the effect if using a mouse. To help you get an idea, […]
You're reading Mozilla Firefox 130 Released with Labs, Overscroll & Web Codecs API, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Tauon music player (once known as Tauon Music Box) now offers native PipeWire audio playback on Linux — albeit experimental for the moment. Fans of this streamlined music player have asked for native PipeWire support for a while, and the app developers have been working on it accordingly. Now, keen to get it out there, the latest Tauon 7.8.1 release ships with native PipeWire support. Now, in case you’re wondering, Tauon already worked with PipeWire through the pipewire-pulse compatibility layer. This update doesn’t require that; Tauon can now interact directly with PipeWire, accessing and benefitting from all of its features. […]
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You know how on Windows you can collapse icons in the task tray to keep them out of sight? Or on macOS, third-party apps like Bartender let you hide menu bar icons until you need them? Well, Lilypad is a new GNOME Shell extension that does the same thing, just for GNOME Shell. It gives you greater control over what top bar items are visible or hidden, and the order they’re arranged in. The top panel can fill up fast, especially if you use a couple of GNOME Shell extensions that are long, like a now-playing track info, a time […]
You're reading Use Lilypad to Rearrange or Hide Panel Icons in GNOME Shell, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the Vivaldi web browser is out with an assortment of amiable improvements. Vivaldi 6.9 intros support for renaming tabs and tab stacks, supports drag-and-drop downloads, and offers an improved overview of tabs synced across devices. “This update is all about refining what makes Vivaldi special: giving you powerful tools to personalize your browser, stay organized, and navigate the web your way”, Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Vivaldi Technologies, says of the release. Support for renaming tabs and Tab Stacks will prove handy for anyone with a sprawling set of tabs open. Not all tabs titles are […]
You're reading Vivaldi 6.9 Released with Tab Renaming, Mail Buffs + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
After a two-week delay, the first Ubuntu 24.04 LTS point release is now ready to download. The first point release delivers an updated ISO, and sees direct upgrades from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS enabled Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS rolls together all of the bug fixes, security patches, kernel buffs, and software updates issued to users since the first release back in April as a new ISO. Periodical refreshes to the ISO mean those who install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS don’t need to download and apply months upon months worth of updates after their install completes. In addition, the new Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS installer images […]
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Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS is due for release today (August 29), as was the fifth and final point release of the previous long-term support release, Ubuntu 22.04 — but the latter has now been delayed. As you may recall, the release of Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS was postponed earlier this month after some late breaking issues were detected, and its debut punted to August 29, the same day as the scheduled Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS release. Two Ubuntu point releases arriving simultaneously is a rare occurrence, and would have stretched Ubuntu’s QA teams and testing infrastructure too thin. In an effort to make […]
You're reading Final Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Point Release Delayed Until September, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
I haven’t booted into the Windows partition on my Chuwi laptop for a while, but hearing that a recent Windows update leaves dual boot users unable to boot Linux at all, I’m glad I haven’t! Microsoft’s mid-August drop of security updates to Windows 10 and Windows 11 includes a security patch to address an exploit targeting GRUB2 Secure Boot bypassing. The Secure Boot Advanced Targeting (SBAT) update nixes the vulnerability by preventing ‘old, vulnerable boot managers’ from being able to boot. Prior to release, Microsoft said this update would not be applied to systems where an active dual-boot was detected, […]
You're reading August Windows Update Breaks Linux Dual-Boots, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A couple of Qt-based apps popular with Linux users, not just those running KDE Plasma, recently received some notable updates. Rather than putting out a post for each, I figured I’d collate them in a single post to. Plus, they all kind of link (see the footnote). By the way: if you’re a fan (or a developer) of Qt or KDE software, do let me know about any new features or updates using the tip form. I’m often asked why I didn’t cover the new release of X, Y, or Z – which assumes I knew it had been released. […]
You're reading Qt App Update Roundup: Calligra, Haruna, and Kdenlive, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Microsoft has handed Mono, the open-source .NET framework, over to the Wine project — a move that’s surprising if only as a reminder that Mono still exists! An announcement was added to the official Mono website earlier today, with Microsoft describing the project as “a trailblazer for the .NET platform across many operating systems [which] helped make cross-platform .NET a reality and enabled .NET in many new places”. It’s gifting (some might say dumping) the Mono Project to Wine’s developers. New source repos are already online, and Microsoft will keep most existing Mono repos online (some archived) and binaries will be […]
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Do you want to check your battery health in Ubuntu from the command-line, without needing to install anything extra to do it? Well, you can. Most of using Ubuntu on a laptop will monitor our battery level from the top bar (I always enable battery percentage in the top bar for at-a-glance needs), then dive into the Settings > Power panel for a lick more detail if/as/when needed. However, those methods only show current battery level, i.e., how long until you need to recharge. They won’t tell you anything about the condition of your laptop battery. If you want more […]
You're reading Check Laptop Battery Health from the Command Line, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
DeepComputing has unveiled a new version of its DC-ROMA RISC-V tablet — and this one runs Ubuntu! The DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II boasts a 10.1 inch (1920×1200) IPS 10-point touch display, and is powered by the same SpacemiT K1 SoC found in their RISC-V Ubuntu laptop (which launched with a confused set of pricing tiers and availability). That chip comprises eight 64-bit RISC-V cores running up to 2.0 GHz, plus the RVA 22 Profile and 256-bit RVV 1.0 standard to provide “powerful AI capabilities”, plus an 800 MHz Imagine Technologies BXE-2-2 GPU. Memory wise, the base model offers 4GB LPDDR4 RAM. 8GB and 16GB […]
You're reading This $149 RISC-V Tablet Runs Ubuntu 24.04, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the popular open-source office suite LibreOffice has been released. LibreOffice 24.8 builds on the improvements shipped in the LibreOffice 24.2 release earlier this year. That release updated the versioning scheme to a data-based format, which this one follows. The ’24’ denotes ‘2024’, and ‘8’ the month, August. Under the hood, LibreOffice 24.8 rolls up 6 months of development: 5591 commits from 171 developer, 115 of whom are volunteers. These range from bug fixes and security tweaks to UI changes, new features, and ever-important enhancements to interoperability. Plus, LibreOffice 24.8 is the first version of the suite […]
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Canonical has announced it will not ship stable release kernel updates during September. Critical security and bug fixes will be packaged up and pushed out to users when/if needed, but the routine rollup releases which typically arrive every few weeks will …not. Announcing the break in an e-mail to the Ubuntu kernel team mailing list, Canonical’s Roxana Nicolescu says that the temporary pause is due to a “critical infrastructure change”, and that: This adjustment will allow us to focus on ensuring a smooth and stable transition. Our next SRU cycle will start when the infrastructure is back online. The current […]
You're reading Ubuntu Hits Pause on SRU Kernel Releases for September, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ever wished you could use your Raspberry Pi 5, Android smartphone, or mini PC as a laptop? The CrowView Note, which hit Kickstarter last week, allows you to do precisely that. From a cursory glance Elecrow’s CrowView Note looks a lot like a regular laptop. It has a 14.1-inch screen, a full-size keyboard, a touchpad, USB and HDMI ports along the sides and, while you can’t see it, a built-in battery too. CrowView Note is a cheap all-in-one portable monitor – a novel form factor with a myriad of uses But it’s not a laptop. There’s no computer inside; no […]
You're reading CrowView Note: A Laptop that isn’t a Laptop – It’s Way More Useful, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Launched less than a year ago, the Raspberry Pi 5 has proven widely popular with single-board computing fans and Linux ARM enthusiasts thanks to its increased performance, memory, and PCIe bus for expansion. But until now the Raspberry Pi 5 has only been available in two variants: a $60/£57 model with 4 GB RAM, and a $80/£77 model with 8 GB RAM. Ample memory for resource-intensive workloads (like running a full Ubuntu desktop), but not everyone needs or wants that much memory, at the increased cost, for simpler projects. Which is why the Raspberry Pi today announced a new $50/£47 […]
You're reading A Newer, Cheaper Raspberry Pi 5 Goes on Sale, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Do you like the idea of using the same profile picture for your Ubuntu user account as you use on Gravatar? If so, there’s a GNOME Shell extension that syncs your Gravatar profile picture to your GNOME Shell user account. It currently only supports GNOME 46, so if you’re using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS you can try it out. Not familiar with Gravatar? Gravatar is a cross-platform avatar service owned by Automattic, makers of WordPress (but WordPress isn’t required to use it). You sign up with an e-mail address, set a profile image, and supported websites and apps where you use […]
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A new Mozilla logo appears to be on the way, marking the company’s first major update to its word-mark since 2017. The existing logo, which incorporates the internet protocol “://” and chosen based on feedback from the community, has become synonymous with the non-profit company. But German blogger Sören Hentzschel, an avid watcher of all things Mozilla, recently noticed that a different Mozilla word-mark accompanying the (unchanged) Firefox logo on Mozilla’s ‘Nothing Personal’ webpage: Some digging uncovered a number of recent code commits readying and referencing a refreshed word-mark and symbol for use in the navigation areas of Mozilla websites, […]
You're reading Mozilla’s New Logo Brings Back the Dinosaur Mascot (Kinda), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Do you want to try the latest Thunderbird 128 release but don’t want to use the snap package available in Ubuntu? Your first thought might be to run sudo apt install thunderbird to install the DEB version of Thunderbird from the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS repos. But like Firefox and Chromium, the Thunderbird DEB package in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is a transition package. When you install that package it installs the Thunderbird snap (and reinstalls snapd, if that has been removed). So in this guide I’m going to show you how to replace the Thunderbird snap with a DEB version from […]
You're reading How to Install Thunderbird DEB on Ubuntu 24.04 (Not Snap), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 24.10 is released in October and will mark the 20th anniversary of Ubuntu. So it’s only fitting that the release offer a few ‘easter eggs’ in honour if its past. And there’s nothing as retro-Ubuntu than the colour brown, right? In a nod to the first ever Ubuntu release, Ubuntu 4.10 ‘Warty Warthog’, Ubuntu 24.10 will include a ‘warty brown’ accent colour1 for users to tinge their systems with. Ubuntu 24.10 includes the GNOME 47 desktop2, and among the new features in GNOME 47 is accent colour support. “Er, doesn’t Ubuntu already have that?”, you ask. Yes, it does […]
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Proton, the company behind a suite of privacy-focused services, has made its Proton VPN Chrome and Firefox extensions available to non-paying users on the Proton Free plan. Prior to today, only users who subscribed to a paid Proton VPN tier were able to use the official web extensions for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Chromium-based browsers. It’s a decision that’s sure to be welcomed by fans of the service, and it continues to flesh out access to Proton’s free-tier features. We’re excited to announce that Proton VPN’s browser extensions […] will now be available to everyone with a Proton Free plan. […]
You're reading Proton VPN Browser Extensions Now Available to Free Plan Users, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The first Ubuntu 24.04 LTS point release won’t be released this week, as initially planned. Ubuntu developers were aiming to get Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS out of the door on Thursday, August 15th, but have had to postpone the release due to a number of ‘high-impact upgrade bugs’ being discovered. As a result, Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS is now due for release on Thursday, August 29th. What is Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS? Anyone already using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS won’t be affected by this delay. Ubuntu point releases are an important part of an LTS in that they periodically refresh the installer image (ISO) […]
You're reading First Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Point Release Delayed By 2 Weeks, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The first Thunderbird 130 beta release is out, and when running it on Linux there’s a very obvious new feature: a tray icon! In the Thunderbird 130 beta release notes the ‘what’s new’ section lists “added Linux system tray icon”, and what’s mind-blowing about the addition is that it developers a feature request first filed on the Mozilla bug tracker a staggering 25 years ago! Tray icons are a bit old hat, but they remain useful on systems that don’t handle background apps in an intuitive or familiar manner. Thunderbird for Windows has a system tray icon/applet, but the e-mail […]
You're reading Thunderbird 130 Beta Includes a Tray Icon for Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS users experiencing issues setting up Fastmail and mailbox.org providers in GNOME Online Accounts to access cloud files, calendars, and/or contacts will be pleased to hear a fix is inbound. Both aforementioned services support WebDAV, CalDAV, and CardDAV, making it easy for users to access files, calendar, and contact through desktop and mobile apps, including many Linux ones. GNOME 46 features a generic WebDAV provider in GNOME Online Accounts (GOA), allowing users of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to sign into any WebDAV-supported service through GOA, and let apps fetch/read and sync/write data to/from them. Or at least in theory. […]
You're reading WebDAV Fixes for Fastmail, Mailbox Coming to Ubuntu 24.04, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ever get miffed reading about a major new Ubuntu release only to learn it doesn’t come with the newest Linux kernel? Well, that’ll soon be a thing of the past. Canonical’s announced a big shift in kernel selection process for future Ubuntu release, an “aggressive kernel version commitment policy” pivot that means it will ship the latest upstream kernel code in development at the time of a new Ubuntu release. Future Ubuntu releases will ship the latest upstream kernel, even if only in ‘Release Candidate’ status Yes, even if that upstream kernel hasn’t yet seen a formal stable release (and […]
You're reading Canonical Announce Major Ubuntu Kernel Change, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
TUXEDO Computers has unleashed their latest Linux laptop, the InfinityFlex 14 — as you might have guessed from the name, it flips and folds. The company touts this dextrous new device as ‘the first 3-in-1 Linux convertible’, with its 360-degree hinge1 allow the touch-enabled 14-inch display to flip back into tablet mode, or be folded into ‘touch monitor’ mode for, er, watching movies I guess. Tablet mode will be especially tempting for open-source artists and animators, and the TUXEDO InfinityFlex 14 supports active style via the Microsoft Pen Protocol 2.0. While a pen isn’t included with the device buyers can […]
You're reading 3-in-1 Linux Convertible Laptop Unveiled by TUXEDO Computers, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The wait is over: System76’s new COSMIC desktop environment is ready for its first test flight. You’ve heard the hype about COSMIC. You’ve tracked news on its development. You’ve seen screenshots of formative builds on blogs like this one. But today, you can finally try it out, firsthand. The first public alpha of the COSMIC desktop environment has landed alongside the Pop!_OS 24.04 alpha release, giving you an early but exciting opportunity to download an ISO, boot it up, and explore what this Rust-based desktop has to offer. Stellar Beginnings: COSMIC Desktop Alpha The COSMIC alpha has arrived alongside that […]
You're reading Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha with COSMIC Desktop is Available to Download, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mozilla Firefox 129 is now available download, and comes with a couple of features customisation fans are sure to enjoy. It’s been 4 weeks since Firefox 128 dished out a unified cookie, cache n’ data clearing experience, the ability to translate portions of text on a web page, and introduced a new privacy-respecting ‘alternative to user tracking’ API. Does Firefox 129 improve on all of that? Of course it does — for more details, scroll on! Mozilla Firefox 129: What’s Changed? I’ll kick off with the most eye-catching new feature in Firefox 129: new tab wallpapers! I previewed this feature back in […]
You're reading Firefox 129 Released with New Tab Wallpapers & Reader View Tweaks, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
As part of every GNOME release (spanning GNOME Shell, Mutter, core apps, etc) is an official set of GNOME Shell extensions. This is non-default package is “a collection of extensions providing additional and optional functionality to GNOME Shell” that are developed and maintained by GNOME developers. Ubuntu, like other Linux distributions that use GNOME Shell, doesn’t seed this pack of desktop bolt-ons in its default install, but do package it and keep it in their repositories. On Ubuntu you run sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions to get it. Most of these ‘official’ extensions are available to install from the GNOME Extensions website. […]
You're reading GNOME Now Has an Official Extension for Legacy Tray Icons, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of Qt-based music player Amarok is available to download. Amarok 3.1 lands three months after Amarok 3.0, which was the first release in nearly 6 years and saw the audio player’s developers complete their port to Qt 5 (which receives further polish here, in 3.1). But with Qt 6 now out work to port Amarok to Qt 6 and KDE Frameworks 6 has been picking up steam. Thought that effort isn’t complete here, in Amarok 3.1, the team say it’s “not that far away” – so that’s great to hear. Amarok 3.1 overhauls its Last.fm integration plugin […]
You're reading Amarok 3.1 Released with Last.FM Tweaks, Qt 6 Prep + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The latest Firefox Nightly build provides a feature that dramatically improves how its picture-in-picture (PIP) feature works — and I’m totally digging it! In current stable versions of Firefox you pop-out video content from (supported) websites like YouTube and Amazon Prime manually, by clicking a button. Doing this enables you to continue watching content in a small, floating window while you switch tabs, minimise the browser, etc. Picture-in-picture mode also allows you to pause/resume playback, see a progress bar, mute audio, enter full-screen, and even view subtitles — some features are streaming site/service dependant. I find this feature super handy, […]
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Google has announced a clutch of new AI-powered features have begun rolling out to users of Chrome on Windows, macOS, and —for once!— Linux. Chrome’s Vice President Parisa Tabriz unveiled the trio of AI features, which are all powered by the latest Google Gemini AI models, on The Keyword blog today, saying: – We’re making it even easier to search what you see with the power of Google Lens, compare products across multiple tabs and rediscover sites from your browser history, whether you’re at home or at work. Google’s Parisa Tabriz As of writing only one of these features (Google Lens) is […]
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AppImages are great: a single runtime containing all of the required dependencies for the app to run, in a double-click binary you can run from anywhere on your system. And therein lies the rub. When I download an AppImage for software like Audacity, Kdenlive, etc., it’s to a folder or my desktop. To run it, I have navigate to the folder and double-click on the binary as unless I manually choose to create a .desktop launcher it won’t appear in any app launcher/menu. Solutions exist, of course. In 2022 I featured a terrific tool to integrate AppImages with Ubuntu easily. […]
You're reading AppImage Fan? Be Sure to Check Out ‘Gear Lever’, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Last May, Canonical announced that a hardware-accelerated version of the Chromium snap was available for testing on Intel (7th-gen and later) hardware. Hardware acceleration on the modern web is a real boon. VP8, VP9, H.264, and AV1 codecs are in wide use, and modern GPUs (integrated and discrete) have dedicated decoders on them in order to deliver smooth video streaming (Netflix, YouTube, etc), video calls, and cloud gaming (Moonlight, Xbox Cloud Gaming, etc). Obviously, the less your CPU is tasked with, the better your system runs as the GPU stays cooler, you avoid thermal throttling, and battery life increases as […]
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If you plan on trying the new Linux Mint 22 release in a virtual machine, why not double-up the fun by taking it for a spin in the VirtualBox 7.1 beta, which slipped out last night. Don’t tune out—most VirtualBox updates are fairly modest, I know. But the upcoming release of VirtualBox 7.1? It’s being billed by Oracle as a ‘major update’ – about time too, I say! VirtualBox 7.1 introduces a “modernized look and feel” that gives users with a choice of UI mode: Basic streamlines the interface, reducing the amount of options, settings, and details shown; Expert puts […]
You're reading VirtualBox 7.1 Beta: ‘Modernised’ UI, Wayland Clipboard Sharing + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
And we’re go – Linux Mint 22 ‘Wilma’ has been officially released and made available to download. This major update is the first to be based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS This major update is built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and sees Linux Mint 22 inherit big updates to underlying packages, libraries, tooling, and core technology stacks. There’s also a new Linux kernel, and a fresh set of graphics drivers. Linux Mint 22 ships with a new version of the Cinnamon desktop (featuring new options), a suite of new and improved apps (plus a few downgrades and removals), and makes some […]
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Love the idea of tinkering around with a small, single-board computer (SBC) but need something more powerful than most ARM-based offerings provide? If so, the new Radxa X4 from Radxa may be of interest. Powered by an Intel N100 CPU with Intel UHD graphics, the Radxa X4 delivers better performance in CPU and GPU tasks than a Raspberry Pi 5, at a similar price point. It won’t match ARM-based devices in power consumption, and will run a bit hotter under load too. Like the Pi —I’d stop comparing but hey: I picked my narrative hook and I aim to run […]
You're reading A $60 Intel-Based SBC Cheaper & Faster than a Raspberry Pi 5, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Course set: the first alpha of Pop_OS 24.04 is scheduled for release on August 8th. So if you’ve been counting the days until you can try the new COSMIC desktop environment first hand… Well, keep counting until then! 😅 Pop!_OS 24.04 will based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and inherit much of the foundational improvements Canonical’s engineers and Ubuntu developers have plumped in. On top of that will sit the new COSMIC desktop environment, its new homegrown apps (file manager, terminal, software hub, etc), and all of System76’s other embellishments n’ enablements (including first-tier support for their own laptops and desktops, […]
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FBReader 2.1 has been released for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with the team behind the eBook reading app calling it “a major update for desktop platforms”. If you’re not familiar with FBReader it’s a Qt-based ebook reader with customisation options, an ebook library, and integration with online sources to download free eBooks. The FB in the name is for FictionBook, the .fb2 ebook format favoured by the app author. FBReader was open-source software until 2015, after which it transition to freeware for Windows, macOS, and Linux (closed source, but free), and freemium for Android and iOS (free version limited, paid […]
You're reading FBReader (Qt-Based eBook Reader) Now Supports DRM EPUBs, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you’ve tried the Tiling Shell GNOME extension you’ll know how easy it makes it to tile application windows in GNOME Shell, from simple to more complex. The latest update, which began rolling out through the GNOME Extensions website this weekend, adds yet another intuitive way to tile windows as you work. First it provided a slide-in Windows 11-style Snap Assistant on to which you drop windows to tile them accordingly. Next, it added keyboard shortcuts to support tiling windows without using a mouse. More recently, edge-tiling was introduced. And you can activate an on-screen drop-zone by moving a window […]
You're reading Tiling Shell GNOME Extension Adds New Way to Tile Windows Quickly, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
I recently rediscovered my Amazon Kindle (a geriatric model from 2012, nothing fancy) and figured, as it still works, I’ll use it, and set about downloading freely available1 EPUBs of classic (and not-so-classic – I’m a pulpy-kinda guy) literature. They say never judge a book by its cover – but it is useful to be able to distinguish a book by its cover! Thing is: my old Amazon Kindle can’t open EPUB files2 so I have to use the open-source eBook tool Calibre to convert them into the AZW3 format my ancient Kindle prefers, or the MOBI format which it […]
You're reading How to Display eBook Thumbnails in Nautilus (Quick Tip), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Were you excited by news GNOME plans to replace the Totem media player in its core software set with a new, modern, and actively maintained app called Showtime? If so, you may be just as excited to hear that it’s now available to install from Flathub. This means you no longer need to set-up the GNOME Nightly repo (and then tussle with endless updates to both app and the underlying runtimes it relies on) to try it out. Better yet, the initial release of Showtime on Flathub is built against the GNOME 46 runtime. If you’ve installed any other GTK […]
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OBS Studio, the open-source leader in cross-platform screen-casting and streaming software, put out a new release this week. OBS Studio 30.2 adds Linux support to the native NVENC encoder, plus Linux shared texture support to the NVENC, QuickSync, and VA-API encoders. And as of this update, PipeWire window/display capture is combined into a single, unified “Screen Capture” source, renamed as “Display Capture (XSHM)” to match other capture sources. OBS Studio 30.2 defaults to using the Hybrid MP4 output format on Windows and Linux. Hybrid MP4 pairs the benefits of fault-tolerant fragmented MP4 with the fast read-access of regular MP4, remaining recoverable […]
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A new version of the open-source, cross-platform audio editor Audacity is available to download, kitted out with some major new features. Audacity 3.6 introduces support for master effects. These adjust the sound of project as a whole (the ‘master mix’ composed of all individual tracks and any realtime effects applied to them) and, usually, done as the final stage of editing prior to export. Brand new Compressor and Limiter effects are included in this update to Audacity, along with a set of handy presets the developers say are applicable to a wide range of use cases. Gain reduction history is […]
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Blender 4.2 LTS has landed, delivering a slew of new features and improvements that open-source 3D artists are sure to love.
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The recent update to AppArmor to remedy issues with 3rd-party apps being unable to run on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (due to its security hardening) inadvertently prevents a fleet of popular Flatpak apps from running either. The Telegram Desktop, KeePassXC, and Steam clients are among Flatpak apps users have reported issues with, seemingly due to the AppArmor profile tweaks for the Bubblewrap sandboxing tool the prior update introduced. To be clear: snap, DEB, and binary versions of the software above are not affected, only Flatpak packages installed from stores like Flathub. But good news: Ubuntu’s developers got to work to identify […]
You're reading Ubuntu Fast-Tracks AppArmor Fix for Flatpak Apps Failing to Start, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
When Scott suggested I cover a new open-source app for Linux on the basis “it’s like Microsoft PowerToys for developers”, I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d be writing about — or why. But after reading the website for DevToys (the app in question) where’s described as a “Swiss Army knife for developers”, things suddenly made more sense. It’s basically a grab-bag of common developer tools baked into a single, offline-friendly utility. DevToys bakes in 30 tools to “help with daily development tasks”, saving programmers, coders, and web builders time and effort as part of their workflow, and perhaps easing the frustration […]
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Linux kernel 6.10 has been officially released. The latest version of the Linux kernel adds an array of improvements, including a new memory sealing system call, a speed boost for AES-XTS encryption on Intel and AMD CPUs, and expanding Rust language support within the kernel to RISC-V. Plus, like in all kernel releases, there’s a glut of groundwork to offer “initial support” for upcoming CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, Wi-Fi, and other hardware (that most of us don’t use yet, but require Linux support to be in place for when devices that use them filter out). Announcing the Linux 6.10 release in […]
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This weekend Apple officially approved the first PC emulator on the App Store, the open-source app UTM SE which is based on QEMU, and entirely free (no icky IAPs) to download. UTM SE is able to emulate a variety of desktop operating systems and system architectures, including MS-DOS, Windows XP, and (of course) many Linux distributions – all without workarounds, jailbreaks, or side-loading .ipa files through Xcode. Although I should set expectations: don’t expect exceptional performance, even on the latest M4 iPad Pro — I’ll come to why in a bit. As you may have heard, Apple relaxed its restrictions […]
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A major update to the open-source e-mail client Thunderbird is now available to download. Thunderbird 128 ‘Nebula’ builds on last year’s stellar Thunderbird 115 release with a flurry of new features, major code improvements, and bug fixes. And like the recent Firefox 128 release this version of Thunderbird is an Extended Support Release (ESR). Like an LTS, ESR status commits to continued updates, bug fixes, and support for several years. Linux distros which rely on ESR builds, like Debian, can update. Support period aside, you’ll find plenty of tangible changes on offer in Thunderbird 128, so preamble done let’s get […]
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Ubuntu’s Flutter-based App Center can now open and install 3rd-party DEB installers. An App Center update that adds support for ‘side-loading’ DEB packages began rolling out to users on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS in the past few weeks (but as snaps update in the background silently, without any indication or alert, I only just noticed). To be clear: this is about being able to install DEB packages you download from the web (e.g., Google Chrome, Discord, Steam, Vivaldi, Slack, etc) using App Center. It’s not about installing DEBs from the Ubuntu repos, which was already possible. With this update it is […]
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A big overhaul of the GNOME extensions website is in the works. As the recent revamp of Flathub proved, engaging store fronts for software and extensions are not the preserve of big-time tech companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Good design is good design. GNOME Extensions are quick and easy way to add new features, behaviours, and visuals changes to GNOME Shell. And the extensions.gnome.org (EGO) website is the go-to place to find and install them. But it’s well overdue a revamp. GNOME Extensions Website Due an Update The current GNOME Extensions website is a functional, no-frills affair. The core […]
You're reading GNOME Extensions Website is Getting a Major Redesign (Sneak Peek), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Hurrah, the open-source editor Zed is now available for Linux. Zed is a GPL licensed IDE written in Rust by the authors of the (much missed) Atom editor and the creators of Tree-sitter. It offers everything a modern IDE should: Zed is GPU-accelerated (by way of the Vulkan API). Combined with the editor’s Rust underpinnings, this editor boasts blazingly fast startup times, can open large files/projects instantly, and benefits from lower input latency than rival editors, like VS Code. Plus, as it’s 2024 so AI was made mandatory in all things, Zed provides integration with Github CoPilot and GPT-4. Use […]
You're reading Zed, a GPU-accelerated IDE Written in Rust, is now available for Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
News that GNOME’s design team is looking to make Inter the default font in GNOME 47 got me curious about what the typeface might look in action. Why Inter? This clean, open-source sans-serif font is designed specifically for user interfaces. It’s legible and clear at various sizes and resolutions, boasts a broad character set, and supports hundreds of languages. Still, this tentative typography swap is not set in stone: we’re early in the GNOME 47 development cycle, the proposed font change is just that: a proposal. Further testing is needed to ensure Inter is an adequate replacement for Cantarell, GNOME’s […]
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Mozilla Firefox 128 is now available download, freshly stocked with some sweet new features. It’s been three weeks since Firefox 127 delivered a deft new way to get rid of duplicate tabs, bolstered security by auto-upgrading mixed-content elements in webpages, and souped-up its in-page screenshot capabilities. And Firefox 128 adds a clutch of canny changes of its own, including a faster way to use the browser’s built-in (privacy-friendly) translation feature. For more details, scroll on! What’s new in Firefox 128? Cruft accumulates as you browse the web, like your web browsing and search history, media cache, cookies (not all cookies are evil, […]
You're reading Mozilla Firefox 128 Released, This is (Mostly) What’s New, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
There are a lot of reasons to love the Raspberry Pi 5, and the inclusion of a single-lane PCI Express 2.0 interface for expansion is, for me, chief among them. I (hastily) bought a Pimoroni NVMe Base so I could use an M.2 SSD with my Pi 5 (a stonkingly faster experience than a slow-poke microSD card). Only problem is it’s large. With that board attached, my Raspberry Pi 5 can’t fit in the official Raspberry Pi 5 case. And while the newer, smaller official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ can be used in the official case, you have to keep […]
You're reading This $10 Raspberry Pi 5 M.2 HAT Fits the Official Case, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Those still making use of Ubuntu 23.10 ‘Mantic Minotaur’ should be aware that official support for this version of Ubuntu ends on July 11, 2024. Which, to orient the blissfully slow who, like me, remain convinced 2024 has only just started, is this week: July 11 is on Thursday. As an interim/short-term support release, Ubuntu 23.10 gets just 9 months of support (i.e., updates from Canonical and Ubuntu developers) from the date of its release. Having arrived in October 2023, July 2024 is when the ‘Mantic Minotaur’ is no-more. But what happens when support for an Ubuntu release ends and it […]
You're reading Ubuntu 23.10 Support Ends July 11 – Upgrade Soon!, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Proton, once famed for a VPN, now provides a suite of secure online services, including e-mail, cloud storage, and password manager (Proton Pass Linux app launched last month). Now, it’s adding another string to its privacy-focused bow, and takes aim at Google Docs in the process. This week Proton announced Docs in Proton Drive, a “privacy-first document editor” which allows anyone with a (free or a paid) Proton account to create, edit, share, and collaborate documents on-the-go from any web browser. Admittedly, an open source, auditable cloud-based word processor isn’t strictly Ubuntu-specific news (incase you’re wondering why I’m writing about […]
You're reading Proton Launch Privacy-Focused Google Docs Alternative, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the Audacious music player popped out a few weeks back, but I totally missed hearing about until today (when sifting through my GitHub stars to make sure no other apps I like have joined the FOSS graveyard). Audacious 4.4 is a sizeable update which existing fans of this feature-packed, lightweight audio app are sure to appreciate, whether they run it on Linux, macOS, Windows, or a *BSD of some description. The biggest change? Audacious now defaults to GTK3 or Qt6 (depending on preference). Neither toolkit bumps changes the look of the app, but will mean the […]
You're reading Audacious Music App Now Defaults to GTK3, Adds New Plugins, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you’re yet to try Miracle-WM, a new tiling window manager made for the Mir Wayland compositor, the latest version, released today, would be a stellar place to start. Made by Canonical engineer Matthew Kosarek (in his free time; it’s not an official Canonical project), miracle-wm aims to pair the efficiency that tiling window managers like i3 and Sway offer with “flashier graphics […] full of smooth transitions and colors”. And where previous releases of miracle-wm tackled the fundamentals the former of the aforementioned aims needs, the new miracle-wm 0.3.0 release begins the work of adding the “bling” required to […]
You're reading Miracle-WM 0.3 Arrives with Bling, Bug Fixes & Better i3 IPC Support, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
And we’re off – the Linux Mint 22 beta release is now available to download. The beta of Linux Mint 22 “Wilma” arrives ahead of an anticipated stable release in late July/early August (depending on how many bugs, issues, and quirks are found and fixed during the formal beta testing period). Linux Mint 22 is a sizeable update. It’s the first version to be based on top of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and inherits all of the foundational goodies that release provides. It includes the Linux 6.8 kernel, new graphics drivers, and PipeWire as default sound server. But Linux Mint adds […]
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Sad news for fans of Gradience, the 3rd-party tool to customise the look of GTK4/libadwaita apps, as this weekend (June 29, 2024) the Github project page was made read-only and archived. News is sure to drain the colour from those who avidly use this tool, as it has proven popular with those seeing to personalise the libadwaita stylesheet to better suit their tastes. But this move isn’t entirely out of the blue. In April, Gradience added a note to top of its Github page mentioning that the app was “looking for a maintainer(s)! if you know Python and GTK4/Libadwaita and […]
You're reading Eek, Gradience Linux Theming App Has Archived its Github, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you’ve been experiencing issues getting some apps to run or work properly in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS it may be down to the distro using AppArmor to restrict the creation of user namespaces. This change (which I touched on in my article look at what’s new in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) is there to bolster security. After all, no-one wants icky apps free to do icky things, unchecked. But the change means AppArmor policies are (somewhat expectedly) preventing some apps from running at all, and breaking features in other apps if they rely on components AppArmor isn’t configured to allow. When […]
You're reading App Doesn’t Run in Ubuntu 24.04? This AppArmor Update May Fix It, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Does it seem like I’m a bit obsessed with Tiling Shell, the super-charged window snapping extension for GNOME Shell, which works beautifully on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and above? It might do since this is my 3rd article about the extension in less than a fortnight! But the updates and new features are coming thick and fast; I can’t not cover them. Progress marches ever on! Tiling Shell v10 hit the GNOME Extensions website yesterday (if you have the extension installed already you’ll get the update automatically) and it includes a number of improvements which merit a mention on these pages. […]
You're reading Tiling Shell’s Latest Update Adds Blur Effect & Edge Tiling, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of FreeOffice has been released. FreeOffice 2024 is a free (as in beer) version based on SoftMaker Office 2024, a commercial, cross-platform office suite. Any users of SoftMaker Office reading this needn’t feel short-changed: the free version comes with fewer features. The 3 core components in FreeOffice (TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations) are also included in SoftMaker Office, and SoftMaker Office NX (a newer, subscription-based offering with AI integrations) but not all features are shared between them. However, all of the essentials one would need are present. What’s missing are the gimmicky end of things, e.g., AI/ML writing/translation, […]
You're reading SoftMaker FreeOffice 2024 Released, This is What’s New, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
System76’s COSMIC desktop environment (ecosystem?) is shaping up to be something truly out of this world, combining modern design with intuitive navigation, embracing customisation, and taking full advantage of the benefits that being built in Rust brings. But every project needs branding. Fluff to a few, but an important signpost to most. Good branding helps encapsulate and convey the ideals and tone of a project, and lend it a unique identity people can instantly recognise and come to love. Today, COSMIC got its own. Behold: the official COSMIC logo, work mark, slogan, and colours: Explaining the idea behind the branding […]
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A new version of open-source video editor OpenShot is available to download. OpenShot 3.2 is the first update to the app since early last year, and the editor’s chief developer, Jonathan Thomas, describes this release as a “game-changer with new themes, improved features, and enhanced performance”. Among the change and new features in OpenShot 3.2: A slew of more generalised improvements, ranging from a ‘stable’ undo/redo experience, and UI tweaks to support high-dpi displays, through to a more reliable tracker/object detection effect (a really compelling features) are present. Naturally, lots and lots of bug fixes are included too for all supported […]
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As the Cinnamon 6.2 release indicated, the Linux Mint 22 release is getting close. But, before a stable release can be made, there needs to be a beta. Oh, sorry—don’t get excited; a Linux Mint 22 Beta isn’t available to download — yet! But it seems one should be along shortly… Yesterday, a Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon Edition ISO was uploaded to the Linux Mint ISO tracker, which is where internal testing of images takes place.This suggests a public beta release is imminent, though ISOs for the MATE and Xfce editions are yet to be added. Once this ISO moves […]
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A new version of Celluloid, an open-source media player for Linux, has been released. Celluloid (originally called GNOME MPV, albeit many moons ago) is an MPV-based media player able to leverage many of MPV’s ‘powerful playback capabilities’, but wrapped up within a more modern-looking GUI. The latest Celluloid 0.27 releases serves as the the first major update to the app this year. It introduces a small clutch of changes aimed at improving overall performance, usability, and appearance. Of these, the most eye-catching change is this: Celluloid 0.27 gains a new option to use a floating window bar instead of a […]
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Tiling Shell, the Windows 11-esque window snapping extension I spotlighted last week received an update at the weekend, adding enhancements I feel are worthy of mention. This includes a request to support snapping windows in the active tiling layout using the keyboard only. Because although that slide-in drop-over Snap Assistant widget makes using Tiling Shell intuitive for mouse users (such as myself), there are times when being able to move/tile windows without taking your hands of the keyboard is preferred. And this is now possible in the Tiling Shell v9.1 update. Similar to other tiling window managers/extensions, you move the […]
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As you may know, Mozilla has big plans for its browser and, among the many new features set to rain down on us this year is greater personalisation of the new tab page. While the ability to set a new tab background image is the most eye-catching (literally) customisation change in the immediate offing, a series of smaller, more practical tweaks are in the works too, like the ability to see weather info on the new tab page. Visiting a dedicated weather website is a proactive way to find out the latest forecast and temperature. But seeing at-a-glance conditions each […]
You're reading Firefox’s New Tab Page Weather Widget: How To Try it Now, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, a free, open-source, and cross-platform office suite, is now available to download. If you’ve not yet found a reason to try this productivity powerhouse out, this latest update could well change that. Last autumn’s ONLYOFFICE 7.5 release added a new PDF application to the suite. This could open/view PDF files, and handle basic PDF editing, like form filling, highlighting, simple annotations, and scribbling on documents with a pen tool. In ONLYOFFICE 8.1, the PDF app matures into a fully-featured PDF editor, expanding the kinds of annotations and edits which are possible: – Although […]
You're reading ONLYOFFICE 8.1 Released with Enhanced PDF Editor + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of Vivaldi, the power-user’s preferred browser (right?) is out with a symphony—don’t groan—of improvements. While most people use the Vivaldi web browser for browsing the web, and it offers plenty of buffs to improve that experience, it also comes with a variety of built-in tools for productivity, like note taking, todos, a clock/timer, calendar, RSS reader, e-mail client and more. Vivaldi Mail is built-in to the Vivaldi web browser, delivering a capable alternative to a regular desktop e-mail client like Thunderbird.It’s POP3/IMAP friendly, fetches and stores mails from your web account(s) locally, has powerful search and filters, […]
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Fancy rubbing shoulders with the great and the good in the Ubuntu community, learning new things, seeing cool demos, and perhaps getting a bit merry with your fellow geeks? If so, make a date to attend the Ubuntu Summit, which this year is being held in The Hague, the Netherlands, from October 25-27th. As always, the Ubuntu Summit is free to attend, though you do need to register. Since returning in 2022, the in-person Ubuntu Summit has helped to revive the spirit, camaraderie, and general joie de vivre so beloved of the original, physical Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) which was […]
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Those of you who own a Framework Laptop 13 —consider me jealous, btw— or are considering buying one, you may be intrigued to hear that a RISC-V motherboard option is in the works. DeepComputing, the company behind the recently-announced Ubuntu RISC-V laptop, is working with Framework Computer Inc, the company behind the popular, modular, and Linux-friendly Framework laptops, on a RISC-V mainboard option. As this is hot of the press and in early development there’s no price or pre-order date yet. But we do know is will be based around the StarFive JH7110 with 4 U74 RISC-V cores. This is […]
You're reading Framework Laptop 13 is Getting a Drop-in RISC-V Motherboard, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
KDE Plasma 6.1 has been released with a plethora of productivity and performance-minded improvements. Building on the KDE Plasma 6.0 release from earlier in this year, the 6.1 update sees KDE developers deliver “improvements and powerful new features to every part of your desktop”, with promises that future updates will see things ‘get more interesting’. Plasma 6.1 allows users to initiate a remote desktop access straight from the System Settings app, to which Remote Desktop clients, like KRDC, can connect. RDP features aren’t new to KDE per se, but this new integration makes setting up connections easier. KDE is king —or queen, […]
You're reading KDE Plasma 6.1 Released With… Well, A Fair Bit!, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you’re looking forward to the upcoming Linux Mint 22 release you’ll be pleased to hear that the Cinnamon 6.2 desktop environment was “released” this weekend. Quote marks because we’re talking a tarball release rather than “it’s rolling out to all existing users”. Indeed, Cinnamon 6.2 will, as I’m sure you’re aware, ship as the default desktop in Linux Mint 22, which is expected to be released sometime this summer — maybe next month? — and will be first version based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. From a glance over the Github change-log, Cinnamon 6.2 looks like a modest refinement to […]
You're reading Cinnamon 6.2 Desktop Goes Stable Ahead of Linux Mint 22 Release, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you’re looking for a more powerful and configurable window tiling experience on Ubuntu, look no further than Tiling Shell, a new GNOME Shell extension which super-charges window snapping with a host of interactive features. Ubuntu improved its own window tiling capabilities last year by making the Tiling Assistant GNOME Shell extension part of the default desktop install. Out-of-the-box, the distro supports quarter-tiling, horizontal half-tiling, and has tiling prompt to quickly snap other open apps. And this was a much welcome addition to the Ubuntu desktop. It finally fulfilled a long-standing feature from users of the distro, and was something […]
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One of the biggest drawback to Ubuntu’s new App Center, the Flutter-based replacement for GNOME’s Software Center, is that it doesn’t let you install DEBs you download from the web. To be clear (since confusion often creeps in) while the Ubuntu App Center does allow you to install DEB software from the Ubuntu repos, it doesn’t (currently) let you ‘side load’ DEB packages yourself – which the myriad of software center incarnations over the years did. App Center will warn users about the risks of 3rd-party DEBs when users go to install them But good news: support for DEB installs […]
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Canonical has announced that it’s collaborating on a RISC-V laptop powered by Ubuntu. The 14-inch DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II is made by DeepComputing, a company formed by self-described “RISC-V pioneers” back in 2022, and based in Hong Kong. Their aim: develop and release all kinds of products to help drive development of the RISC-V ecosystem. It’s built around a SpacemiT K1 SoC, which has 8 64-bit RISC-V cores running up to 2.0 GHz. It supports the RVA 22 Profile and 256-bit RVV 1.0 standard for “high performance” & “powerful AI capabilities”. The 14-inch display pushes a FHD resolution at 60hz, […]
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We enjoy a cinematic lineup of epic Linux video players, with the likes of VLC and MPlayer serving as big-name, A-list draws — but ready that popcorn because a potential new star is on the scene. Streaming has become the preferred way to watch video content these days but there’s still a place for a versatile, user-friendly, offline-first media player, even if only for infrequent use, like previewing a clip to be uploaded online for others to stream. Ubuntu ships with Totem (aka Videos) as its default video player by virtue of the fact it’s also the GNOME default video […]
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“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me and I’m feeling…“ like I should stop singing and crack on with writing this post to say Mozilla Firefox 127 has been released — because it has! Yes, it’s been a month since Firefox 126 made its way out into the wild, and since Mozilla detailed a range of (rather exciting) improvements it’s got planned for the browser over the coming 12 months. While this latest release doesn’t offer any of those tantalising additions, like vertical tabs, new tab wallpapers, and improved profile management, there is […]
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A new version of Mission Center, the super-slick system monitor for Linux, has been released. I’ve written about this utility a number of times before (here and on OMG! Linux) so if you read this or that blog you—aside from being awesome—may already be familiar with it. And if you’re not? Well, you’re in for a treat. As Linux system monitors go (and there are more than a few) Mission Center is easily one of the best for fans of graphical user-interfaces who want to check their system’s CPU and RAM usage. Mission Center monitors CPU (overall or pre-thread), memory […]
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Linux laptop vendor TUXEDO has confirmed plans to release a Linux ARM laptop based on the Snapdragon X Elite SoC. It recently showcased a prototype of a new ARM notebook at Computex, the annual computer event in Taiwan. Powered by the Snapdragon X Elite and running an ARM port of their Ubuntu-based TUXEDO OS with the KDE Plasma desktop. This is the same chip that’s been in the (tech) news a lot of late as it’s powering Microsoft’s new wave of Copilot+ PCs and laptops running Windows 11 ARM. Like Apple Silicon, the X Elite has CPU, GPU, NPU and […]
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The popular, powerful, and cross-platform video converter HandBrake recently put out a new version with a notable improvement. HandBrake 1.8.0 now uses GTK 4 for the user interface, dropping GTK 3 entirely. This toolkit uplift (facelift?) has been in the works for a year or two. Although it’s not using libadwaita (so don’t expect a hugely different look to before, or panic unduly if it’s not your vibe) the Handbrake GTK4 port delivers a number of frontend and backend benefits. For example, the audio and subtitle track list widgets are now interactive in the GTK 4 build, bringing them in-line […]
You're reading HandBrake 1.8 Released with GTK4 UI, FFV1 Encoder + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu offers a powerful, configurable, and easy-to-use desktop experience out of the box but as the saying goes: one size doesn’t fit all. Customising Ubuntu’s look and layout, installing apps and awesome GNOME Shell extensions, and taking time to tailor the distro to something more in-tune with ones own needs is something we all do – and the beauty of using Linux is that we can do that. That’s not a great task for most of us: a few additional apps, a nice wallpaper, maybe an extension or two, and everything’s running sweet. But what about those who make need […]
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A new version of VLC, the perennially popular open-source media player, is out with an assortment of improvements and new features. VLC 3.0.21 is the first maintenance release to be issued year, following on from last autumn’s 3.0.20 release. Maintenance and support for the VLC 3.0.x series continues alongside efforts on the next major milestone, VLC 4.0. A testament to its enduring versatility even in the age of streaming age was recent news that VLC passed a major milestone: 5 BILLION downloads. Announcing that, VideoLAN, the team who make the app, also shared exciting plans for the future of the […]
You're reading VLC Adds AMD VQ Enhancer Filter, Improved Opus Ambisonic + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Proton, the Swiss-based privacy company best known for its VPN and e-mail services, has announced the release of Proton Pass for Linux and macOS. The new desktop apps mean Proton’s encrypted password manager now supports all major desktop operating systems, as well as Android and iOS. Plus, official Proton Pass web extensions are also available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and others. All Debian and Red Hat-based Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, are supported by the new Proton Pass Linux app. Proton say the Proton Pass Linux app will “integrate with the system’s authentication mechanisms and APIs” in an upcoming update. […]
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A new version of the OMG! Ubuntu extension for Google Chrome, Chromium, and other compatible web browsers is now available on the Chrome Web Store. Didn’t know we had a browser extension? That’s on me; I suck at self promotion. In fact, this seems to be the first blog post I’ve ever written about our browser bolt-on since we launched it back in 2013. The OMG! Ubuntu Chrome extension makes it easy to keep up with the latest posts without needing to visit the site. It’s ideal for those who don’t use RSS or who rely on social media algorithms […]
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With the AI gold-rush in full swing the folks at Raspberry Pi have joined the fray, launching a new budget-friendly machine-learning module for their iconic single-board computer. The $70 Raspberry Pi AI Kit is composed of the company’s own official M.2 Hat board and a low-power AI module from Hailo, a company who specialise in producing energy-efficient AI chips for use in devices rather than data-centres. A lite version of the Hailo-8 chip, the Hailo-8L AI accelerator, is included in the kit. Raspberry Pi say this is capable of “13 tera-operations per second (TOPS)”. For reference, the NPUs Intel, Qualcomm, […]
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The Software Manager app in Linux Mint 22 will deliver faster start-up times and introduce a significant security safeguard for search results. As you may know (and if you don’t, what’s living on Mars like? ;P), the Linux Mint Software Manager (package name mintinstall) allows users to install DEB packages from the Ubuntu/Linux Mint repositories as well as Flatpak apps from Flathub. However, not all apps on Flathub are verified. So, Software Manager will now show verified Flatpaks only. Unverified Flatpaks will not appear in any search results. Now, a lack of verification isn’t necessarily a major red flag. Many […]
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There are a number of ways to convert documents on Ubuntu but few are as quick and easy to use as Morphosis. Morphosis is a desktop app written in Python and GTK4/libadwaita and powered by Pandoc, a command-line document converter tool for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and WebkitGTK. Pandoc is a powerful and efficient tool but not everyone is comfortable at the command line (and even those who aren’t sometimes don’t want to have to swot up on the various arguments and flags needed to convert). Enter Morphosis, which wraps the power of Pandoc in a super-simple GUI. Using the […]
You're reading New App Makes Converting Text Documents on Ubuntu Easier, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Those using Ubuntu on Windows through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) may be interested to know that ‘significant updates’ are on the way. In a blog post to recap things discussed as the recent Microsoft BUILD event the company’s senior product manager for the Windows developer platform Craig Loewen runs though what’s coming down the pipe for WSL users. Several experimental WSL features Microsoft announced last year have started to make their way to stable/default builds. Among them, automatically releasing stored memory in WSL back to Windows. Device with limited memory will benefit most from this, but so too […]
You're reading Microsoft Announce WSL Updates, Including New Settings App, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Few computer keyboards are as iconic, as influential, or as beige as the IBM Model-M — no surprise then that it’s been given a modern reimagining courtesy of 8BitDo. Following on from Nintendo NES and Famicom and Commodore 64 homages, 8BitDo has unveiled its latest retro-inspired mechanical keyboard. This one is a homage to a true computing classic, putting a modern spin on the IBM Model-M keyboard. To avoid anyone familiar with the real-deal getting too excited I’ll mention up front that 8BitDo’s Keyboard-M uses Kailh Box V2 white switches (swappable, of course) so you’ll have to supply your own […]
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This month’s Firefox 126 release brought with it a modest set of improvements for Linux users — as well as an annoying bug which temporarily breaks drag and drop actions in the browser. And that bug was easy to trigger: select some text or an image on a web page, then ‘drag’ it out but release (something I inadvertently do when browsing web pages quite often). Then, next time to you try to drag something out of a web page it no longer works. Restarting the browser (or perform a convoluted workaround involving external apps) would thaw the flaw, but […]
You're reading Mozilla Firefox 126.0.1 Fixes Drag and Drop Quirk on Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 24.04 is now available for the Milk-V Mars RISC-V single board computer (SBC). RISC-V is an open-source processor spec. Anyone can access its design to create their own chips freely, without having to pay licensing fees or royalties. Much like a Linux distro, people are able to collaborate, contribute, and build on RISC-V in effort to improve it. And while ARM (which I’m sure you’ve heard of) and RISC-V fall under the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) umbrella, RISC-V touts a unique, modular architecture. Its base instruction set can be extended, tailored, or moulded to suit specific needs. Given the […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 Arrives on Mars – the Milk-V Mars (RISC-V Computer), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Day Progress is a new GNOME Shell extension that does something really simple (perhaps too simple to appeal to a mass audience): it shows a progress bar in the panel to relay how much of the day has elapsed. A visual cue to stay motivated —deflated in my case: I realise how much time I waste browsing for ‘schweet gharms’ (as the yoof say) on Vinted— and a way to gain a more abstract perspective on time tracking than that offered by a traditional clock. This extension is directly inspired by a macOS app of the same name created by […]
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Cascadia Code is an open-source monospaced font made by Microsoft first released in 2020 and serves as the default typeface for the official Windows Terminal app. Similar to Intel’s One Mono, JetBrains’ Mono and IBM’s Plex, Cascadia Code is an clear, legible, modern monospaced font tailored for terminal and code editing and offering a wide range of programming ligatures. Earlier this mont the font received its first update in nearly 3 years and, as per release announcement, it’s a huge one. If you’re a fan of this font and have an older version installed, or you’re just a creative into […]
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Rufus, a popular open-source tool for making bootable USB drives on Windows, just released an update that includes a ‘fix’ for working with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ISOs. A truly versatile tool, Rufus is able to create bootable Windows installers from ISO files and disk images as well as Linux installers and, more pertinent to this news, persistent Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Debian USB installers. Rufus 4.5, released this week, includes support for persistence in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Additionally, this update also fixes issues when creating persistent Linux Mint 21.x USBs too. Creating persistent Ubuntu USBs in Rufus isn’t new (the […]
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Stop by the Snap Store website today you’ll see it’s undergone a revamp – the second design rejig to the online storefront in the past 12 months but more substantive than the first. The search bar is now shorter and incorporated into the header section (which also drops the “Search thousands of snaps used by millions of people across 41 Linux distributions” strap line its shown since 2019). The “Featured snaps” section remains at the top of the content area but is no longer topped by a featured banner graphic. Icon, title, uploader, and description for each of featured snap […]
You're reading Snap Store Website Redesign Goes Live – And It Looks Good, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
It’s now possible to upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS from earlier versions officially, using the standard GUI mechanisms — no command-line developer flag required. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS released on April 25 but the distro devs delayed direct upgrades to the new version due to bugs – one rather serious. Though those issues weren’t universal (lots of folks upgraded through the command-line without issue) the risk was there. Now that the necessary bugs have been nixed the official upgrade channel to the Noble Numbat has opened. Canonical has added Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to the meta-release file that older versions of the […]
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Wondering what sort of features Mozilla has planned for upcoming versions of its Firefox web browser? You needn’t wonder too hard; Mozilla has shared an updated roadmap on its ideas platform outlining its near-term priorities, features, and enhancements that its engineers are already or are soon to begin working on. And be excited, be-be excited as a number of tentpole new features are namechecked, including vertical tabs, tab grouping options, greater personalisation options, and a heads-up on how it plans to approach AI-based helpers/integrations. What’s neat is that the roadmap covers a few things we can test (via the about:config […]
You're reading Mozilla Shares Updated Roadmap for Firefox – Vertical Tabs, AI + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you use Slack on Ubuntu and were frustrated that screen sharing under Wayland was only showing a black screen (or crashing the entire app entirely), you’ll be pleased to hear those issues are now fixed. I’m not a Slack user —who’d I talk to, myself?!— and while I hear that this popular chat platform works best in a Chromium-based web browser these days (some features don’t work in Mozilla Firefox, sob) the Slack desktop app for Linux still has its conveniences. But over the past 12 months or so I’ve seen a fair few folks who use Slack on […]
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Of the (many) handy new features in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is the ability to access OneDrive files through the Nautilus file manager as a remote mount. This is made possible by the msgraph package, a new gvfs backend that Nautilus can use, account integration through GNOME Online Accounts (GOA), and Microsoft giving GNOME the relevant permission and approvals. And while the file-access feature isn’t obvious to set up, it’s easy once you know how. It works with both regular Microsoft OneDrive accounts and OneDrive accounts provided for and/or managed by an organisation such as your work. As a ‘turn key’ […]
You're reading Keep Losing OneDrive File Access in Ubuntu 24.04? Here’s a Fix, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
There are plenty of fun things you can do on a Nintendo Switch: you can throw your hat at sentient creatures in Super Mario Odyssey; plaster people in colourful ink in Splatoon 2; and lose all grip on reality thanks to an ill-timed blue shell in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Oh, and you can also run Ubuntu. Switchroot is an open-source project that allows Android and Linux-based distros like Ubuntu to run on the Nintendo Switch —absolutely not something Nintendo approves of much less supports, endorses, or encourages, etc! I covered the loophole that permitted this back in 2018. Back […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 Now Runs on the Nintendo Switch (Unofficially), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu first switched to using Wayland as its default display server in 2017 before reverting the following year. It tried again in 2021 and has stuck with it since. But while Wayland is what most of is now login to after installing Ubuntu, anyone doing so on a PC or laptop with an NVIDIA graphics card present instead log in to an Xorg/X11 session. This is because NVIDIA’s proprietary graphics drivers (which many, especially gamers, opt for to get the best performance, access to full hardware capabilities, etc) have not supported Wayland as well as as they could’ve. Past tense […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.10 to Default to Wayland for NVIDIA Users, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
VMware has made its pro virtual machine software free to use on Windows, macOS, and Linux — only for personal use though. This changes means you can download VMware Workstation Pro 17 and use without a license key or ongoing subscription cost for Windows and Linux, while those on macOS can download, install, and use VMware Fusion Pro 13 for free instead. Virtualisation software like VMware lets you run “guest” operating systems on a “host” operating system, often with seamless system integration like shared clipboard contents, drag and drop files, etc., and hardware support, like GPU acceleration. Such apps make it […]
You're reading VMware Workstation Pro Now Free to Use on Linux & Windows, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mozilla Firefox 126 is now available download, and in-app updates beginning to roll out to existing users on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. As Firefox updates go the 126 release is rather light on user-facing goodies, especially versus last month’s release which intro’d clipboard paste suggestions in the address bar, colourful highlighting tools to the PDF editor, and activity indicators in Firefox View. The only real user-facing change in Firefox 126 is a toggle to turn-off the vertical split pane feature in the the web inspector. While a tap of the esc key can show/hide split-pane at will some folks […]
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Linux kernel 6.9 has been released after several months of attentive development. Linux founder Linus Torvalds announced the final release on the Linux Kernel Mailing List in his usual relaxed, laissez faire style. He notes that while kernel contributors have reported “a few regression fixes that haven’t made it to me yet […] none of them look big or worrisome enough to delay the release for another week. We’ll have to backport them when they get resolved and hit upstream.” “So 6.9 is now out.” Nice — if you get it, you get it — but what’s new? Overview of […]
You're reading Linux Kernel 6.9 Released — And It’s Packed with Improvements, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The recent Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release has garnered plenty of praise for its great performance on Intel/AMD hardware, both does the latest version runs as well on the ARM-based Raspberry Pi? I’m pleased to say it does. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS for Raspberry Pi is available in both server and desktop builds. Both offer the majority of what’s found in the equivalent 64-bit Intel/AMD version. For desktop users that means GNOME 46, the latest Linux kernel 6.8, and Mesa 24.0.5 graphics. But because Ubuntu’s Raspberry Pi builds are ‘preinstalled images’ they don’t include the Flutter-based installer. Instead, user account set-up and configuration […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Runs Brilliantly on the Raspberry Pi 5, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Let’s go, folks — Ubuntu 24.10 daily builds are available for download. Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole’ officially opened for development earlier this week following the reveal of the official codename (more than window dressing the codename is a critical part of infrastructure setup) and a draft Ubuntu 24.10 release schedule. As development has only just started there’s no compelling need to download an Ubuntu 24.10 daily build right now. The beginning of each Ubuntu development cycle is primarily made up of package churn with little “new” to enthuse over. Of course, there’s certain to be a slow of new features […]
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If you use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or later and want to access the Google Gemini AI chatbot straight from your desktop outside of a web browser, you’re in luck! The Gemini AI ChatBot GNOME Shell extension (unaffiliated with Google; it’s not an official thing) gives you quick, on-demand access to Google Gemini at any time, direct from the applet it adds to the top panel — no need to open a web browser or launch a standalone app. Gemini (previously known as Bard) is a generative AI developed by Google to rival ChatGPT, Microsoft CoPilot and large language models. Like […]
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Google’s recent ‘structural simplification’ led to 200 people across many of its core development teams, including Python, Dart, and Flutter, losing their roles. With Canonical committed to using Flutter for its own desktop apps the news of layoffs in the team responsible for building the framework has left some in the wider Ubuntu community worried about its future viability. The new Ubuntu Installer, Firmware Updater, App Center, and the (currently MIA) Desktop Security Center are all built using Flutter, which is Google’s cross-platform Web-based UI framework underpinned by the Dart programming language. And within the Ubuntu Flutter community a number […]
You're reading Google’s Flutter Team Layoffs Leave Ubuntu Devs in a Flap, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Canonical has published a draft release schedule for Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole’. According to the timetable we should expect the final stable release of Ubuntu 24.10 to arrive on Thursday October 10, 2024. Six months of development lay ahead, with a beta release of the ‘Oracular Oriole’ set to take flight on September 19, followed by a release candidate build on October 3 to help identify extant issues. As a short-term or ‘interim’ release Ubuntu 24.10 will only get 9 months on support from its release. Short but sweet and it dovetails into the Ubuntu 25.04 release due in April […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.10 Release Date Set for October 10, 2024, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Canonical kernel engineer Juerg Haefliger has shared an update on Ubuntu support for the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s (Gen 1) laptop. The 13-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X13s is an ARM laptop powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx (gen3) processor with Adreno 690 GPU, 16 GB RAM, a 256 GB SSD, and claimed ~28 battery life. It comes preloaded with Windows 11 Pro for ARM by default. Last year a quasi-official (albeit experimental) Ubuntu 23.10 install image was released for this device, spearheaded by Juerg and the engineering effort he’d made to support it. The ISO was made available to download from the […]
You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 Support WIP for Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Laptop, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Fans of open-source racing game SuperTuxKart will be stoked to hear devs are busy in the pit lanes pepping the next major update — and it’ll launch this summer. SuperTuxKart 1.4 was released back in 2022 with a ton of improvements. Successive updates in that series have fine-tuned, fixed-up, and finessed performance and stability, but not put any new features in the tank (so to speak). But things shift up a gear in SuperTuxKart 1.5. This summer, SuperTuxKart 1.5 gets off the starting line with a welcome clutch —no, I’m sorry about these puns— of improvements and buffs across desktop […]
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Media Progress is a new GNOME Shell extension that adds a real-time progress bar to the MPRIS notification/sound control doohickey that shows in the notification area. This extension doesn’t do else bar (heh) that, but as simple enhancements go it’s a nifty one. More than a mere indicator, the progress bar the extension adds is interactive and seekable. Click anywhere in the progress bar to jump to that position (which is handy if listening to something long, like a podcast or audiobook). As of writing the Media Progress extension supports GNOME 46. So to use it you will need to […]
You're reading This Extension Adds a Progress Bar to GNOME Shell Media Controls, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux Mint 22 will include a Matrix web client preinstalled when released later this year. The IRC-based desktop chat app Linux Mint has been building, Jargonaut, to replace Hexchat and provide real-time communication for its users, will no longer be included (the status of any future development uncertain). Why the change? “Jargonaut […] works well and does exactly what we want. Its implementation was relatively easy and I’d say it’s now 75% complete,” Linux Mint lead Clément Lefèbvre says. But he adds that “feedback about Matrix” led to the team testing it, liking it, and deciding to switch. As such, […]
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It seems that the popular command-line system info tool Neofetch is dead, Jim. The Github repo for the project was archived by its main developer last week and is now read-only, a sure sign that development has well and truly ceased to be. Not that this is a shock. Development on Neofetch seemed to stall a few years back as bug reports piled up, pull requests were ignored, and the developer stop replying. The last update to Neofetch was made in 2020. I’m a big fan of Neofetch and have used it on all my installs since discovering it in […]
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A new version of the open-source music player Amarok has been released, the first major update to the Qt-based media app since 2018. Amarok 3.0 is the first stable release to use Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5, and work to port the music player to the the newest Qt 6 and KDE Frameworks 6 is, its devs say, soon to get underway. “Common usecases should work quite well, and in addition to fixing KF5 port related regressions reported in pre-releases, 3.0 features many bugfixes and implemented features for longstanding issues, the oldest such documented being from 2009,” devs say. […]
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Mozilla devs are bringing more customisation options to the new tab page in Firefox. A number of modern web browsers, including Google Chrome, allow users to set a custom image as the backdrop for the new tab page: As the new tab page is (by default) set to show when a browser is launched and every time a new tab is opened it’s a highly visible (if often fleeting) part of users’ browser experience, making customisation a popular request. But while Mozilla Firefox offers an array of advanced features and settings that put it on a par with rival browsers […]
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Want to know the official codename of Ubuntu 24.10? Although Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has only just been released the pace of development marches ever on. Ubuntu developers are already beginning to bootstrap the base on which the next short-term release of the popular Linux distribution will be built. Ubuntu 24.10 will be released in October, 2024 and, upon release, receive 9 months of updates. Of course, as we all know: every new Ubuntu release gets its own alliterative codename made up of an adjective and an animal (real or mythological). For Ubuntu 24.10 they’ve settled on “Oracular Oriole”. Cute, but […]
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With Ubuntu 24.04 LTS released and a long weekend upon us you might be planning to upgrade an existing Ubuntu install to the latest version. But don’t. For one, “officially” you can’t since Ubuntu 24.04 LTS upgrades are not yet enabled, neither from Ubuntu 23.10 nor 22.04 LTS. But that doesn’t stop us folks from upgrading manually. They hear that a new version of Ubuntu is out and stable, they don’t fancy the faff of a fresh install, and they don’t want to wait for the “new version available” upgrade prompt to appear on their desktop. So they go to […]
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Arriving alongside the main Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release are new versions of the official Ubuntu flavours, including Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Cinnamon. What follows is a concise, top-level overview of the key new features and changes in some of the most popular Ubuntu flavours, plus the relevant downloads links to snag an ISO need should be tempted into trying a few flavors first-hand. Unless otherwise noted, all flavours share the same foundational footprint as the main release, e.g., Linux kernel, graphics drivers, tooling, etc. But some fears, like the Flutter-based OS installer and the snap-centric App Center aren’t used in […]
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Among the many new features in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is the ability to access your Microsoft OneDrive files through the Nautilus file manager. No 3rd-party app downloads, no dodgy scripts to run, and no paid plans to cough up for because this nifty feature is part of GNOME 46 (and available in any Linux distribution using it, not just the latest Ubuntu LTS). OneDrive file access works the same way as the (long-standing and popular) Google Drive integration: a Gvfs backend authorised through GNOME Online Accounts (via the Settings app), and then surfaced as an entry in the Nautilus sidebar. […]
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After 6 frenzied months of development the final stable Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release has arrived and is available for download. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (codenamed ‘Noble Numbat’) includes a rich array of new features ranging from an enhanced desktop installer and a the latest GNOME desktop to gaming improvements and a new Linux kernel. As a long-term support release Ubuntu 24.04 LTS gets 5 years of select apps updates, security fixes, kernel upgrades, and other buffs, and a further 5 years of extended security coverage via Ubuntu Pro. Plus, enterprise customers can buy an additional 2 years of coverage to make […]
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A new version of Clapper, a GTK4-based video player for Linux desktop has been released — the first major update in nearly 2 years. I first wrote about Clapper back in 2021 having been seduced over by its slick user interface (a superficial reason to like a media player, I know), its use of GStreamer, and a small but focused feature set that wasn’t trying to distract me with features I’d never need. Subsequent updates to the app refined and expanded those selling points further and player remained my preferred video player, despite the lack of any major update since […]
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Anyone making the upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS from the previous LTS, Ubuntu 22.04, is in for a treat because the amount of improvements on offer is vast. In addition to the new features in Ubuntu 24.04 those upgrading from the previous LTS will also discover, experience and benefit from the myriad of features added in the Ubuntu 22.10, 23.04, and 23.10 releases. Those upgrading from the previous LTS will find 2 years worth of changes on offer in Ubuntu 24.04 — Which amounts to a LOT! In this post I run-through 20 of the biggest changes Ubuntu 24.04 LTS […]
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Next time you stop by the Flathub website you will notice it’s had a bit of a revamp. The latest UI refresh lands a year after its last big redesign and builds on that look by adding new on-page features. These changes make it easier for Linux users to find the apps they are looking for and come across new software they might not have heard of. — That is unless they regularly read sites like mine, eh 😉. The Flathub homepage is now topped by a new banner slider (updated weekly) which promotes 5 apps. There’s also a new […]
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Using Linux on a 64-bit ARM device and longing to use Firefox Nightly builds? Well, you’re in luck — Mozilla has finally made ARM64 Linux builds available to download. As I understand it most Linux distributions that support ARM64/AArch64 offer a native ARM version of Firefox in their repos (in Ubuntu that’s via snap) though some Linux ARM distros only offer Firefox ESR, which is a long-term support version lacking newer features. It’s not been possible to get Firefox for ARM64 directly from Mozilla itself. But that’s changing. When Mozilla launched its own APT repo bringing DEB versions of Firefox […]
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A new version of Audacity, a popular open-source audio workstation, is available to download. Audacity 3.5 introduces major new features and improvements, fixes a number of issues in earlier builds, and removes a number of older, less-used options. The headline addition is sure to be the new cloud-saving feature. This allows users to save Audacity projects to the audio.com website (requires a signup), permitting projects to be accessed from different devices, and enabling sharing and collaboration. And, arguably more important, it acts as a versioned backup. If something goes wrong with a project you can restore an earlier version — […]
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Among the many new features in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is out-of-the-box support for HEIF/HEIC images. Anyone using Ubuntu 24.04 won’t have to manually install any extra packages to be able to see HEIF/HEIC thumbnails previews in the Nautilus file manager or open HEIF/HEIC files in the default Eye of GNOME image viewer app. While HEIF (which stands for High Efficiency Image File Format) isn’t a super common web image format it is widely used on smartphones. Both Apple iPhone & newer Samsung devices save to the format for photos taken using the stock camera apps. Which makes this small change […]
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You know the drill by now: a new month rolls around, and a new version of the inimitable Mozilla Firefox rolls off the release server for us all to enjoy. And bang on cue, Firefox 125 has arrived. The big-ticket new feature in this update is URL paste suggestions: Mozilla says this feature “provides a convenient way for users to quickly visit URLs copied to the clipboard in the address bar of Firefox.” How does it work? If you copy a URL to the system clipboard and then focus the URL bar (in Firefox 125, that is) you will see […]
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If you want to relax or need to concentrate on a task at your computer then listening to ambient sounds can often help — and the best Linux app for this task just got a big update! Blanket is a free, open-source GTK4/libadwaita app that comes packaged with a variety of ambient looping sounds. These range from classic nature tracks (rain, wind, waves, birds, etc) through to environmental buzz (coffee shop, city, train, etc). You can play just a single sound or layer several sounds simultaneously by adjusting the volume level for each preset individually so everything sits right aurally. […]
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A beta version of LMDE 6 “Faye” is now available to download. The next major update in the LMDE series (LMDE stands for ‘Linux Mint Debian Edition’) is based on Debian 12 Bookworm, which offers a significantly fresher stack of software than available to users of LMDE 5 (meaning as upgrades go this is a compelling one). LMDE endeavours to offer an experience that’s as close to Linux Mint as possible but without relying on Ubuntu infrastructure. Maintaining LMDE also enables Mint to ensure its homegrown software is compatible with Linux distros outside of the Ubuntusphere. Its chief reason for […]
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Do you own and use Nanoleaf lights and want to control them from your Linux desktop rather than a mobile app? If so, you’re in luck as there’s a plucky little GNOME extension that lets you do exactly that. The creator of the Nano Lights GNOME extension says their add-on “…controls Nanoleaf shapes and possibly others Nanoleaf devices on your local (wifi) network (sic)”. This includes turning devices on/off, adjusting the brightness, changing/setting the colour, and setting Scenes. Nanoleaf products are popular with Twitch streamers and YouTubers in particular as the unique designs, flexible placement options, and wide range of […]
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Ubuntu’s new “App Center” app has arrived in Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds – no Snap channel commands required to test it out. The new front-end for installing Snap and Deb package is built using Flutter. Ubuntu made Flutter its ‘default choice’ for app making in 2021. Despite being made with an unconventional toolkit the new store looks perfectly in-keeping with the rest of the Ubuntu desktop. For a closer look at this natty new client, and to learn more about what it can and can’t do, keep reading! Ubuntu App Center The “old” Ubuntu Software/Snap Store app (it was called […]
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Mozilla Firefox is bringing rounded bottom corners to its Linux builds. Getting official support means you’ll no longer need to use a third-party GNOME extension to force rounded corners in the browser. The change will help Firefox look more ‘at home’ when run windowed on Ubuntu and on other Linux distros that use GNOME and/or ship large sets of modern GTK apps. Here’s how Firefox (stable) looks in Ubuntu 23.10: And here’s how Firefox (nightly) looks like in Ubuntu 23.10: The change is subtle, but look closely at the bottom corners of the browser. You’ll notice that the sharp bottom […]
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The default wallpaper set to greet those installing Ubuntu 23.10 ‘Mantic Minotaur’ next month has been unveiled. Ubuntu 23.10’s default wallpaper and mascot artwork draws heavily on the motifs afforded to it by its mythological moniker – to a greater degree than I think many of us had expected. Most Ubuntu mascot artwork has, during the past 5 years or so, been fashioned from geometric shapes, simplistic lines, or concentric circles. But Mantic is a far more complex beast. The ‘bull’ head is present but it is not as linearly distinct as mascots past. Instead, Ubuntu’s designers have chosen to […]
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Good news for those looking forward to the upcoming GNOME 45 release – it’s arrived in the Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds! The next stable update to the world’s most-used Linux desktop environment isn’t due to be released until later this month, so what’s made it in Mantic shouldn’t be considered final, finished, or forgone. But Ubuntu 23.10 isn’t due to be released until October anyway, so it all jives nicely. Improvements to libadwaita aimed at enhancing consistency and adaptability bring new full-height sidebars to many of GNOME’s core apps, including Nautilus, Settings, and Calendar: Additionally, the “Activities” label in the […]
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A major update to the phenomenally popular Paprius icon set for Linux desktops is now available. Papirus’ September 2023 update adds a bunch of new and updated glyphs, including redesigned icons for LibreOffice that riff on the suite’s own recent icon revamp. Among the newly added apps supported in Paprius v20230901: Additional file/document types are catered for as of this update, with .hwp, .Julia, and .vue among them. If you regularly work with or download these files you’ll appreciate seeing bespoke representations for them in your file manager. Additional file/document types are catered for as of this update, with .hwp, […]
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The next version of the world’s most popular desktop Linux operating system (that’s Ubuntu, for those of you playing dumb) will come with less software available out-of-the-box. Current daily builds of Ubuntu 23.10 only includes a handful of apps by default. These cover only the most basic of basic computing needs. This is the same install everyone gets. For anything else the idea is that we, the user, fire up the Software Store (though the new one isn’t included yet) and install what we want ourselves. As an idea, it’s not without merit. But in practice, I think it’s a […]
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Regolith Desktop 3.0 has been released for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS, 23.10, and both Debian Bullseye and Bookworm. This update to the keyboard-driven, tiling desktop environment also introduces an alpha-quality Wayland-based session based on the Sway compositor (though this is only available if using the DE on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and above, or Debian Bookworm). Notable changes in Regolith Desktop 3.0: An assortment of bug fixes, code cleanups, and performance optimisations come included in Regolith Desktop 3.0 too, so read through the full release notes for more detail on those. Upgrading from an earlier version of Regolith? There are […]
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Mozilla Firefox 117 is now rolling out to users across Windows, macOS, and Linux. But don’t get excited about its arrival, okay? Given the rapid release cadence this browser uses the days of blockbuster, feature-packed Firefox updates are long gone. We still get ace new features, but we get them in dribs and drabs, spread out over the course of a year, rather than in a single blockbuster update. Which is why updates like Firefox 117 seem unexciting (though to be clear: I’m not saying unexciting is a bad thing, lest anyone jumps me down in the comments). Case in […]
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I made a little joke — which some people didn’t find funny, alas — about the super bright, glaring white default wallpaper Ubuntu devs added to the Mantic Minotaur daily builds last week. That joke is now even flatter as, following respectable™ consternation (i.e. a bug report) about the suitability of the background, Ubuntu developers issued an update to the image. That update dials the brightness down a notch or two (and eyes everywhere rejoice). Those booting up Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds during the coming weeks won’t feel compelled to dive for their brightness keys as they’ll be greeted by […]
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Helping round off August with aplomb is the official release of Linux kernel 6.5 — which arrives days after the kernel celebrated its 32nd birthday. Linus Torvalds announced Linux 6.5’s arrival on the official Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) as he always does, where he says that “nothing particularly odd or scary happened this last week [of development], so there is no excuse to delay the 6.5 release”. Read on for a drop more detail about the many improvements, enhancements, and merriments the latest stable kernel release brings with it. Linux Kernel 6.5 New Features Those running Linux 6.5 on […]
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Turns out that installing the Steam client from the Ubuntu repos on a new Ubuntu 23.04 install doesn’t work – and barely anyone noticed. Which is kind of surprising given the popularity of Steam, but also kind of not — and I’ll get to why in a second. So what’s the rub? This (unintentional) issue stems from Ubuntu’s switch to a new Flutter-based installer. The new installer leverages Subiquity on the backend. This was originally created for Ubuntu server where 32-bit library support isn’t enabled by default. Due to an “oversight”, Subiquity desktop installs also don’t enable 32-bit library support. […]
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Ubuntu was planning to ship the CUPS printing stack as a Snap in 23.10 — but after several months of testing, its changed its mind. Accordingly, a DEB-based printing stack will feature in Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur” and in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Switching to the CUPS Snap will now aim to take place during the Ubuntu 24.10 development cycle. The CUPS Snap got added to Ubuntu 23.10 development builds early and has recieved a decent bout of testing – but issues remain: This reversal is undoubtedly disappointing for the devs working on it but it is the right decision for […]
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There’s a new way to install stable mainline Linux kernel builds on Ubuntu — all thanks to a former Canonical employee and Ubuntu developer. Stéphane Graber has been running mainline Linux kernels on his Ubuntu systems for a while (having found the quality of Ubuntu’s generic kernel lacking of late) and says they are “working surprisingly well”. Thus, he’s put in the effort needed to “scale” up building the latest stable bug fix release of the mainline Linux kernel, applying select changes not yet upstream, and making them available for other Ubuntu users to install on their machines. “The general […]
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A new temporary wallpaper is being introduced in Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur”, which is currently under active development. The aim of the background is to make it “more obvious when testing the mantic daily that it is not lunar anymore”. There’s precedent for this; Ubuntu 23.04 included AI-generate lobster artwork for the bulk of its daily builds. It visual signpost doesn’t just remind developers and enthusiasts which release they’re working on/testing but makes those watching early-bird Ubuntu 23.10 reviews on YouTube etc aware that what they’re seeing is not the final, finished product. Anyway, here’s how Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds […]
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Intel’s open-source monospace font (imaginatively titled ‘Intel One Mono’) has been updated. “You’re blogging about a frickin’ font update?!”, you scoff (justifiably perhaps). But hey: indulge me (if only so I can continue using words beginning with ‘I’). Font updates aren’t that exciting, granted. But Intel One Mono was created specifically for developers (which means it’s also ideal for terminals, which I know a lot of you use on the regular, thus making this post relevant). I also don’t need to assume this font is popular with you folks; my original post about Intel One Mono lingered in the omg […]
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Lovers of Linux distros that run well on lower-end hardware rejoice for Bodhi Linux 7.0 has been released and is now available to download. Bodhi Linux 7.0 is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and uses the Enlightenment-based desktop and Moksha window manager by default. The distro is notable for running deftly on devices with limited resources (though there’s no reason you can’t or shouldn’t run it on high-end devices too). I took a look at the Bodhi Linux 7.0 beta back in May and liked what I saw. Since then the distro’s devs have updated the s76 ISO to use Linux kernel 6.4 […]
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LibreOffice 7.6 is available to download. This update lands exactly on schedule, some 6 months after the LibreOffice 7.5 release (which included visual tweaks, major PDF export enhancements, and other changes). LibreOffice 7.6 sees its devs build out further to deliver fixes, finesse, and a decent drop of new features. Keen to learn more? I know you are, so let’s dive in! LibreOffice 7.6: New features Before we dive in, a note on expectations via The Document Foundation. See, LibreOffice has been under constant development for 12 years (and it’s built-off a codebase older than that). So, lower-level work aside, […]
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I ain’t much of a modern gamer — as evidenced by the lack of hardcore gaming content on this blog! But CodeWeavers sent over a press release to tell me about CrossOver 23, the latest update to their commercial version of Wine for Linux, ChromeOS & macOS (don’t read “commercial version of Wine” and be angry: CodeWeavers are major contributors to the Wine Project). Naturally there’s some stuff in CrossOver 23 guaranteed to appeal to Linux gamers. Most notable: CrossOver 23 supports the EA App on Linux and macOS. Games said to be working through this include The Sims 4, Titanfall 2 and Mass […]
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A new version to the free (but not open-source) WPS Office is available for Linux. It’s been an age since I last mentioned WPS Office on this blog. The main reason for this is I don’t use office software (and if I even need to, LibreOffice suffices). But I am not everyone; WPS Office has its fans – so this post for is for them, and for those interested in alternative Linux office suites. But before I run through “what’s new” in the latest WPS Office Linux release I should recap what WPS Office actually is. That way those who […]
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Grab your crayons, Krita, or whatever else you use to create stunning artwork because KDE devs are looking for a new desktop wallpaper and there are prizes to be won! “Prizes?”, you ask – yes, prizes plural: a 13-inch Framework laptop and your work being used as the default wallpaper in KDE Plasma 6.0 (currently in development and due for release next year). Opportunities like this don’t come up often! What are the conditions? Wallpapers entered in to the KDE wallpaper competition need to be original and made specifically for it – no rehashing your greatest hits or dusted off […]
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Want to play an improved version of famed futuristic racing game wipEout on Ubuntu? Chances are you do as this game is considered something of a classic. A bona-fide hit on PlayStation when released (it also came to DOS and the Sega Saturn) its success spawned a slew of sequels and imitators on gaming systems that followed. But forget about using ROMs in PSX emulators like Duckstation to relive the magic. The developer of this rewrite says the quality of wipEout’s original code is “abysmal” – which I find comforting There’s a rewrite of the Wipeout source code (made possible […]
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Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS release has been made available to download. The 3rd point release in the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS series, this update rolls together all of the security patches, bug fixes, and software updates issued to the Jammy Jellyfish since the previous point release, into a shiny new ISO image. This update includes a newer Linux kernel & graphics drivers back-ported from Ubuntu 23.04 I.e. it’s a real time saver for those doing a fresh install. Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS also includes a new hardware enablement stack (HWE) composed of Linux kernel 6.2 and Mesa 23.0.4 (a sizeable update in itself). Package […]
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Web page translations are available in the latest beta builds of Mozilla Firefox. Google Chrome’s built-in translation capabilities are something I find useful. Whenever I load a web page not in my native tongue (which is English, despite what my typos may suggest) the browser asks if I want to translate the content (which, most times, I do). Thus I’m pretty thrilled to see the Firefox 117 beta is testing a website translation feature of its own. And as you’d expect Mozilla’s version looks to to a privacy respecting implementation compared to Google’s take. In the pop-up that appears when […]
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Keen to kick the tyres on the next wave of KDE software? If so, check out a revamped experimental archive KDE neon developers recently announced. Unstable builds of the Ubuntu-based KDE neon now include KDE Plasma 6 (which is under active development) but apps retooled/built using KDE Frameworks 6 (considered pre-alpha quality at the time of writing) are being more cautiously previewed, siloed in a dedicated archive. To be clear here: you can sample, test, and use KDE Plasma 6 in KDE neon Unstable builds without this archive (as I understand it). But if you want — and want is […]
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The first formal release of Rhino Linux is available to download. Rhino Linux is a rolling-release Linux distro based on Ubuntu. It is a community-based project and not an official Ubuntu flavour. I’m not sure if there’s any linage to the “Rolling Rhino” project ex-Ubuntu desktop manager Martin Wimpress created in 2020. Following a series of successful beta builds (which passed me by, I confess) Rhino Linux 2023.1 is now available to download. This snapshot release is available for 64-bit Intel/AMD systems and ARM64, with specific builds provided for Pine64 and Raspberry Pi devices. There’s no “change log” of features […]
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Here’s a quick tutorial for those of you looking to change the lock screen background used in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS through the most recent release, Ubuntu 23.04. Out-of-the-box (as this is the same for any Linux distribution using a modern version of GNOME Shell) the lock screen background is a blurred version of whatever image is set as your desktop wallpaper. And for most folks, that’s fine. But if you’d rather use a different image for your lock screen background without the blur effect applied (though blur is still used for the “shield” to make the login field readable) you […]
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Ubuntu 22.04 LTS users can now upgrade to Linux kernel 6.2 using the Software Updater tool. Ahead of the formal Ubuntu 22.04.3 point release due next week (August 10) Canonical has issued an updated kernel to existing LTS existing users to install. It back-ports the Linux 6.2 kernel used in Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster”. Typically, HWE updates roll out once the formal point release itself is made. This time the update has arrived earlier – which is great news for those already on the LTS as it means they can benefit from all the new features in Linux 6.2 without […]
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When I run apt update on my Ubuntu laptop it prints a stream of errors about W: target packages/repos/DEP-11 being ‘configured multiple times’. These errors do not prevent apt from working (so it’s not an issue in that sense) but the lengthy printout looks messy, is annoying to see, and clearly (since I’m being told about it) is something I should fix. But how? I mean, I didn’t intentionally configure the (in my case Google Chrome) repo multiple times so I can’t just “undo” what I did. And I’ve been using Ubuntu long enough to know that idly editing apt […]
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The recent release of Thunderbird 115 (aka “Supernova”) seems to have gone down well with users of all shades, across all platforms — which is always nice to see. To keep things ticking over nicely a scheduled update to the open source email client is rolling out. The update brings a bunch of bug fixes to bear, plus a couple of minor UI tweaks. Thunderbird 115.1 hides the Quick Filter bar by default. I think this gives the e-mail client (in whatever layout you’re using) a sleeker presentation. Still it’s only hidden by default not removed; the Quick Filter bar […]
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With Linux Mint 21.2 release out, development attention turns toward its successor, Linux Mint 21.3, which Mint today confirmed will be released in December. We don’t have a codename for the release (though we do have one of the upcoming Debian-based version of Linux Mint: ‘Faye’) but we do have some loose info about what to (not) expect. “We’ve got many exciting ideas, I’m sure some of the cool new features we have in mind will be implemented, but we want to prioritize some long-term aspects and dedicate some of our time to them,” writes Linux Mint lead Clement Lefebvre. […]
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I’ve never been tempted to use a mechanical keyboard — but 8bitdo’s new NES-styled one might change that. It’s beautiful to look at, has programmable buttons, volume dials, works both wired and wirelessly (200 hour battery life), is an 80% width (i.e. compact but not cramped), has 87 keys, and, best of all, costs a mere $99. The price point alone is certifiable impulse-purchase territory. “Uhm, what’s this keyboard got to do with Ubuntu?”, you ask. Well, nothing – not strictly. See, the software 8Bitdo provide to actually configure the keyboard’s fancier features is not available on Linux (or macOS, […]
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A new month means and a new version of Mozilla Firefox is available to download. Firefox 116 carries a modest crop of changes that further refine and finesse the famed FOSS browser. Do you use Picture-in-Picture mode (PIP)? If so, you’ll notice that the pop-put window finally has a volume slider. This makes it easy to adjust the sound levels of whatever you’re watching without needing to affect system-wide volume levels – a nice little buff, I think. Sticking with video, Firefox 116 supposedly supports hardware-accelerated video playback on Raspberry Pi 4 for H.264 video content. As there are no […]
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A new version of Ubuntu-based Zorin OS is available to download. Zorin OS 16.3 introduces a number of refinements that, its developers say, help “elevate your computing experience even further”. On paper, the inclusion of the new Zorin OS Upgrader app is Zorin OS 16.3’s tentpole feature. This tool has been in a year in development. It allows users to upgrade from one version of Zorin OS to another, be it a new version (e.g., a point release like this one) or a different edition (such as going from Zorin OS Lite to Zorin OS Pro). Previously users needed to […]
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Planning to upgrade or install Ubuntu 23.10 when it’s released in the autumn? If so, you can look forward to an experience powered by the Linux 6.5 kernel. While the Linux 6.5 kernel is yet to be released yet, the stars (or rather the release calendars) have aligned to make its inclusion in the “Mantic Minotaur” a dead-cert. Current daily builds of Ubuntu 23.10 include the Linux 6.3 kernel. Linux 6.5 is due for release in mid to late August. Ubuntu 23.10’s kernel freeze takes effect on September 28. And the final stable release of Ubuntu 23.10 goes live on […]
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Ubuntu devs plan on making a notable typographic change in the upcoming release of Ubuntu 23.10 ‘Mantic Minotaur’. In an effort to improve the quality and (marginally) reduce the number of fonts a standard Ubuntu install comes with, the plan is to ship the Noto fonts package by default. This package includes sans-serif and serif fonts that cover a swathe of latin and non-latin scripts. In current versions of Ubuntu the DejaVu fonts package is pre-installed and pre-configured to handle non-latin scripts. With this change the Noto fonts will take over duties for cases where DejaVu would be used as […]
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A new development version of GIMP recently released, and it’s a fairly notably one for a couple of reasons. Though not stable (i.e. expect bugs) this release gives us our best look yet at how what the stable GIMP 3.0 release will comprise of when it’s released later this year (a release candidate of GIMP 3.0 draws close, for those interested). First up, devs say GIMP’s GTK3 port is now “officially done”. If you’ve paid any attention to GIMP’s development efforts in the past few years you’ll know that porting the app to GTK3 has been a real fear. For […]
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Pull that party popper ‘cos Linux Mint 21.2 ‘Victoria’ is now officially available to download. This release is the stable series successor to last year’s Linux Mint 21.1 release. It remains based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and runs atop Linux kernel 5.15. Most of you (I imagine) already know about Linux Mint 21.2’s new features as they’ve been covered here and on other Linux blogs pretty heavily over the past few months. But if you’re you’re somehow not aware then you’re in for a modest treat. Linux Mint 21.2 includes: Linux Mint 21.2 also includes Cinnamon 5.8, the latest version […]
This post, Linux Mint 21.2 is Out with Gesture Support, App Updates, + UI Tweaks is from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A brand new version of the Thunderbird email client is out – and it’s looking fire! Many of the major UI changes teased last year make their debut here in Thunderbird 115, which has been dubbed “Supernova” and is available to download for Windows, macOS, and Linux from July 11 from a beautifully revamped Thunderbird homepage. The changes are more than skin deep, too. The client’s codebase has undergone extensive rebuilding in order to lay a “solid groundwork for future releases that will make Thunderbird a significantly better email client”, to quote Ryan Sipes, Thunderbird’s Product and Business Development Manager. […]
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Stéphane Graber has announced their resignation from Canonical after 12 years of working at the company, mostly on LXD. The decision follows news last week that Canonical has taken the LXD project in-house after years of it existing as a community endeavour under the Linux Containers (LXC) umbrella. Stéphane’s engineering expertise and enthusiasm for LXD (and containers in general) has arguably made them the “face” of LXD. In social media replies to their (somewhat unexpected) decision, many have commented on this and thanked them for their contributions and help over the years. Clearly a major loss for Canonical (though a […]
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The introduction of a “minimal install” mode in the Ubuntu installer has been one of the distros best-received features in years. When selected during initial install Ubuntu’s ‘minimal install’ provides users with a complete, fully-functioning Ubuntu system but, notably, fewer pre-installed apps. The same ISO also delivers a ‘full installation’ mode stacked with swathe of software – the default, recommended option. So having added a feature that users enjoy Ubuntu is now, umm, removing it. The plan: a new “unified default install”. This, from the sounds of things, will focus on a “choose your own apps” experience. Not an awful […]
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Canonical has taken full control of the LXD project. A short statement posted on the Linux Containers website states: “The LXD project is no longer part of the LinuxContainers project but can now be found directly on Canonical’s websites.” Although Canonical created LXD and has been a key contributor to its development the project has thus far lived under the auspices of the Linux Containers community. That’s changing as Canonical now feels the project will “be better served directly under Canonical’s own set of projects”. LXD (which stands for Linux Container Daemon) is an open-source container management tool building on […]
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A brand new version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser is rolling out — and it’s a real doozy. Linux users with Intel GPUs will be THRILLED to hear that Mozilla Firefox 115 finally supports hardware video decoding by default. Most devices with Intel graphics hardware will benefit from the feature which is, as I’m sure you’ve already assumed, powered by the open-source Video Acceleration API (VA-API). Those on devices lacking platform support for H264 video decoding will benefit from a fallback to Cisco’s OpenH264 plugin when playing compatible content in this release and up. Linux users can also middle […]
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If you’re eager to play around with the upcoming KDE Plasma 6 release the folks behind the KDE neon make it easy. Work on KDE Plasma 6 is well underway and the first stable release of it is expected to be released …Well, when it’s ready – but likely sometime later this year. But if you’re keen to muck in and try it out ahead of then you can download KDE neon unstable edition. This is an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS based “not a distro” distro whose latest ISOs include KDE Plasma 6.0 and its assorted libraries and frameworks. Now, I […]
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A new ‘app store’ is expected to ship as part of Ubuntu 23.10 when it’s released in October — and it’ll debut with a notable change to DEB support. Don’t get too excited; the new store is one you’ve heard about before (if you read this site, at least). It’s the community-created Flutter software hub I wrote about last year, which Ubuntu devs later expressed interest in making official — and thus did. A couple of interesting — and potentially controversial — things planned for the first official incarnation of the tool were revealed recently so I figured I’d ferry […]
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If you thought you wouldn’t be bothered by Ubuntu’s (mildly annoying) apt “awareness” feature or Ubuntu Pro updates as you don’t use the command line, bad news. Ubuntu will start showing apt news and Ubuntu Pro updates in the Software Updater app on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS later and above in the coming months. To be fair, neither feature is meritless. Apt news is used to inform users of critical security incidents in the wild (though so far it’s only been used to promote Ubuntu Pro). Canonical says it can “help people understand the nature of recent updates and inform their […]
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Next time you stop by the Snapcraft website you’ll notice it has undergone a revamp. Canonical unveiled the changes today saying it “embarked on a project to redesign snapcraft.io and give it a more modern look”. This ‘more modern look’ is now live on the web for everybody, including you, to go gawk at. If you follow @omgubuntu on Twitter you’ll may have seen a tweet earlier the week in which I expressed slight surprise™ at the new logo. What previously said “Snapcraft” now says “Canonical Snapcraft” – which in light of those “proprietary backend” claims levelled against the format perhaps makes […]
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If you’re all about your local music and don’t want any sort of streaming service or cloud integration, pitch up a tent and check out Festival, a new cross-platform, open-source music player written in Rust and leveraging Symphonia. The ‘unique’ user-interface won’t suit everyone’s tastes. But in terms of functionality Festival does everything a music player needs to (with a few minor exceptions). Plus, Festival is blazingly fast — even when processing substantial local music collections. Files, folders, tags, artwork all blink into view instantaneously. Memory usage during playback (on my system) was on par with Rhythmbox, so it’s not […]
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Zorin OS is a fantastic Ubuntu-based distro but one drawback to using it is that you can’t upgrade to new versions (or the paid Pro edition). Well, it’s a drawback no longer! Yes, Zorin OS has finally delivered on the distro’s most requested feature. The new Zorin OS Upgrader tool, as I’m sure you can guess from the name alone, makes it possible to directly upgrade to new major versions of Zorin OS (e.g., Zorin OS 15 to Zorin OS 16) as well as Zorin OS editions (e.g., Zorin OS Core to Zorin OS Pro). All upgrades happen in-place, no […]
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A quick heads-up to any content computer users out there still using Ubuntu 22.10 — support for this release ends on July 20, 2023. Those without a calendar to gawp at should know that this is less than a month way away at the time of writing. But don’t panic (though I admit my headline doesn’t help in that regard). You can upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 in-place, without needing to reinstall from scratch. Barring the 25 mins or so the process takes, it’s a painless procedure (note: you may need to manually re-enable any PPAs or 3rd-party repos you make […]
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After 2 months of solid development, Linux 6.4 kernel is now officially available to download. Announcing the release of the latest Linux kernel on (where else?) the official Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), Linux founder Linus Torvalds writes: “Most of the stuff in my mailbox the last week has been about upcoming things for 6.5 but that’s for tomorrow. For today we’re all busy build-testing the newest kernel release, and checking that it’s all good. Right?” I’d say “yes”, Linus but I’d be lying. So what’s new exactly? New Features in Linux 6.4 You’d expect a new Linux kernel release […]
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Canonical recently confirmed its intentions to launch an all-snap Ubuntu desktop image next year — but you don’t have to wait until then to try it out. If you scoot along to the Ubuntu Core Desktop GitHub page, check out the actions tab, find a (completed) build job, then scroll down to the ‘artefacts’ you’ll see a ZIP. Download and extract the ZIP, then extract the tarball inside. Et voila: a ~12GB image you can boot in a VM1 or flash to a USB drive (16GB+). All of this is public knowledge thanks to ex-Canonical employee (and immutable distro champion) […]
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Grab that empty USB and get flashin’ cos the Linux Mint 21.2 beta is now officially available to download. The beta of Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” lands a couple of weeks ahead of the expected stable release, tentatively scheduled for mind July. Linux Mint 21.2 is still based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (as are all entries in the Linux Mint 21 series) but a sizeable set of enhancements, new features, and UI changes feature. At the heart of Linux Mint 21.2 is Cinnamon 5.8 — and it’s boasting a tranche of tactile improvements. As recently reported, Linux Mint now supports […]
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I haven’t used the Opera web browser since… Well, forever – but I’m well aware it remains a popular option with folks. Today, June 20, Opera hit version 100 and, through the power of marketing, transforms itself into Opera One. At least, that’s what I think is happening. The official press release says “Opera’s flagship browser today passes the baton to the brand-new Opera One on Windows, Mac and Linux.” — but the branding within the browser itself doesn’t use the “One” moniker. It’s still just called “Opera”. So, who knows. What is Opera One? Opera has form when it […]
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Users of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS who make use of window snapping to enhance their productivity will be interested in a bug fixes coming down the update pipes shortly. The Mutter 42.9 update currently in Jammy’s proposed repo contains a fix for high memory and lagginess when resizing side-by-side tiled windows. Given that Ubuntu 22.04 only supports vertical side-by-side window tiling — the upcoming Ubuntu 23.10 supports quarter tiling out-of-the-box — this is likely to be a bug that has affected many users. I was interested to see if this bug was reproducible on any of my 22.04 installs. I fired […]
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Here’s a quick tip for those of you looking for an easy way to see see remaining disk space in the file manager of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Once upon a time — like, really far back — the Nautilus file manager had a static status bar. This gave you an easy, at-a-glance way to see the amount of remaining disk space in whatever drive or folder you were viewing, at all times. Alas, this feature was lost to the sands of time (well, development priorities). Nautilus still comes with a status of sorts but it’s now a floating overlay that […]
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Some neat improvements feature in the latest update to ONLYOFFICE, an open-source productivity suite for Windows, macOS, and Linux. As always I’m not shouting the name to annoy you, it’s simply how it’s stylised. ONLYOFFICE 7.4 features a host of tweaks throughout all three core components, including the ability to draw on presentation slides, text documents, forms, and spreadsheets. To do this select the newly added Draw tab and, providing you’ve got the skill, select a pen and colour then doodle away! You can select your drawing and move/manipulate it on a per-line basis (that is, each time you release […]
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It looks we’re getting super close to a Linux Mint 21.2 beta release. Development on the follow-up to last year’s Linux Mint 21.1 release was recently wound down, and a new version of the Cinnamon desktop tagged for release on GitHub. These moves indicated a beta release is approaching — and that’s now been confirmed on the Linux Mint community hub. As spotted by Neowin, Linux Mint 21.2 beta ISOs for the Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE desktop editions are tagged ‘being testing’, and a pair of earlier builds marked as ‘rejected’. When these beta ISOs move to ‘approved’ status a […]
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Debian 12 ‘Bookworm’ has been officially released and is available to download. The latest version of this iconic and influential Linux distribution has been in development for 2 years. It’s the stable series successor to Debian 11 ‘Bullseye’ which saw release back in 2019. Debian is synonymous with stability and predictably – arguably its USP Debian is, of all the Linux distributions I’ve ever used, the one synonymous with stability, predictability, and reliability. In some ways this makes Debian the least exciting Linux distro —woah, before you scroll down to call me creative if demeaning names in the comments, that’s […]
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Improved window tiling is coming to Ubuntu 23.10. If you’re a regular reader you’ll have expected this. I revealed earlier this year that Ubuntu developers wanted to make the Tiling Assistant GNOME extension part of the default install. Well, now they have. The (renamed) Ubuntu Tiling Assistant extension is rolling out to Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds, and will, barring any unexpected issues, ship out-of-the-box on new installs. So what does this extension provide? Well, in current versions of Ubuntu when you drag a window to either side of your screen you’re able to “snap” it to 50% of the horizontal […]
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Between IBM Plex Mono, Hack, Fira Code, and JetBrains Mono I think we Linux users are spoilt for choice when it comes to open-source monospace fonts that look good and work great. Still, there’s always room for more, right? Intel thinks so, hence the release of Intel One Mono. This is an “expressive monospaced font family that’s built with clarity, legibility, and the needs of developers in mind.” Better yet it’s not only free to download and use but free to edit, and free to redistribute. Typography experts at Frere-Jones Type worked alongside Intel’s brand team and marketing company VMLY&R […]
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You know the deal: the world spins, a month passes, and a new version of Mozilla Firefox is released for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Firefox 114 arrives on schedule, with a few notable enhancements, a large dose of bug fixes, and additional web features that developers can take advantage of of. The “big ticket” item in this version? A new UI to manage the DNS over HTTPS exception list. While previous versions have supported this privacy-enhancing feature there are new new settings for it in the Privacy & Security panel, including n easy way to add sites to your exception […]
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Longing to use touchpad gestures in Linux Mint to manage windows, workspaces, tiling, and so on? Well, you’re in luck. Gesture support is coming to Cinnamon 5.8, Linux Mint says its latest monthly update. They don’t say an awful lot more about it than that, explaining: “Cinnamon 5.8 is getting gestures support for window management, workspace management, tiling and media controls. Gestures will be supported on touchpads, touchscreens and tablets.” So how’s this working? Well, it’s already possible to use touchpad gestures on Linux Mint (assuming you have hardware that supports it, of course) thanks to the terrifically customisable TouchEgg. […]
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Want to rename the audio devices that appear in the Quick Settings menu sound switcher? “No,” will be the answer from most people reading this. But I reckon a few of you will be hollering a throaty “hell yeah” my way — so this GNOME extension tip is for you, folks. I showcased an extension that lets you hide audio devices from GNOME’s Quick Settings menu a week back. This one is similar. But instead of hiding audio devices from the sound switcher it allows you to rename them. Like, anything you want. “Sound bar”, “noise emitter”, “cheap speakers”, etc. […]
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I know that the Papirus icon pack is hugely popular so I figured I’d ferry word that a new version is available for download The June update is largely composed of symlinks to allow Flathub versions of apps already covered by the set match up to their corresponding icons. This includes icons for Adobe Reader, Godot 3, Jellyfin Server, Proton VPN, Puddletag, Waterfox, and ZSNES. A handful of Steam titles, including Dream Logical World and popular emulator RetroArch, get icons; and the icon for VSCodium, a well-regarded “de-Microsoft’d” version of Microsoft’s VSCode editor, has been redesigned to echo the upstream […]
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As anticipated, support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is now over — but don’t panic if you’re still using it, as this is not the end of the road. Ubuntu 18.04 ‘Bionic Beaver’ lives on through Expanded Security Maintenance1, or ESM. This provides users of the distro with a further five years (!) of core security updates from Canonical and Ubuntu developers. ESM isn’t automatic but it is easy to enrol. To benefit, you need to sign up for an Ubuntu Pro subscription — but don’t worry, this is free for regular users on up to 5 devices (more if you’re […]
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An all-snap Ubuntu desktop is coming — and sooner than you might think! According to Canonical’s Oliver Grawert, the next long-term support release of Ubuntu will be available to download in 2 versions: a classic, deb-based version (default) and, for the first time, an immutable, snap-based build for enthusiasts to experiment with. You can’t see me right now but I assure you I’m pulling my best faux-shocked face. A snap-based desktop won’t be the default offering, but it will be there for enthusiasts to try Why the snark? Well, let’s face it: an all-snap Ubuntu desktop is something of an […]
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Ubuntu 23.10 is aiming to ship the CUPS printing stack as a snap package. Canonical’s Till Kamppeter, who is also the project lead for the OpenPrinting Project, says he wants to “…switch Ubuntu 23.10, the Mantic Minotaur, as planned, to use the CUPS Snap as its printing system and the Printer Application Snaps as drivers for non-IPP-driverless printers.” Printers are not my forte; I last owned a printer about a decade ago and even then it hadn’t been used for years — not quite a daisy wheel, but getting there! I recall plenty of printer driver issues on Ubuntu, and […]
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A major update to Tube Converter is now available. If you’re not familiar with this GTK4/libadwaita app, it’s a GUI tool that makes it easy to download videos from YouTube (assuming you have permission, etc) and a number of other popular video streaming sites. Tube Converter is powered by the popular yt-dlp engine, providing a sleek, user-friendly front-end to many of that tool’s features. It lets you download multiple videos at a time in a variety of formats, including MP4 and WEBM, and audio-only MP3, FLAC, and WAV. Latest Tube Converter Features There have been a couple of sizeable updates […]
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Join me in hearing an imaginary drum roll as I reveal the date and location of the next Ubuntu Summit. This year, Riga in Latvia will host Ubuntu’s in-person soirée, from November 3rd to November 5th at the The Radisson Blu Latvija Hotel. Interestingly, the Ubuntu Summit 2023 is not the only is FOSS-focused event Latvia’s capital accommodates this year as GNOME’s annual GUADEC event rolls into town during July. Not sure if this is a coincidence or planned . “Ubuntu Summit is an event focused on the Linux and Open Source ecosystem, beyond Ubuntu itself. Representatives of outstanding projects […]
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Many moons ago I covered a neat audio tool called PulseEffects, which made it easy to modify the sound output of any app on a global or per-app basis. As you may infer from the name, PulseEffects was built around and designed for PulseAudio. Most major Linux distributions have switched from PulseAudio to PipeWire for their audio handling. Enter Easy Effects, a successor to PulseEffects that sports a modern GTK4 interface, and an expanded set of features that enable to function as a powerful audio effects processor for PipeWire applications. It offers an equalizer, limiter, and compressor (among others) and […]
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Being able to quickly switch between different audio devices is one of my favourite things about GNOME Shell’s Quick Settings menu. No longer do I have to fire up Settings > Sound to quickly switch from my laptop’s built-in speakers to my (not exactly amazing) USB-C speakers, or to my Bluetooth sound bar. However… There is one rub in this otherwise easy-going experience: my list of sound output is quite long. This wouldn’t be an issue if I used half of them, but I don’t. I only tend to switch between the same ones. The rest are just visual noise, […]
This post, How to Hide Audio Devices from GNOME’s Quick Settings is from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Iconic open-source email client Thunderbird is getting a brand new logo. The Thunderbird project is in rude health of late. It’s bagged a big boost in funding thanks to donation drives, got an official Android app, and showcased a major UI redesign that has a lot of people, myself included, super stoked. With the project now thriving Thunderbird’s Project Manager, Ryan Sipes, has revealed a brand new icon for the app that they say “properly represents this revitalization”. And here it is: Strikingly different yet still eminently recognisable as Thunderbird, isn’t it? The designer of the original Thunderbird icon, Jon […]
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It seems Google Chrome is getting a minor makeover later this year, and if you’re riding the browser’s development channel on Ubuntu1 you can opt-in to try the new look out now. I’ll get to the “how to” part in a moment. First I ought to show you a few screenshots of what it is you’ll be opting in to. As UI changes go, the one Google’s cooking up isn’t overly radical on Linux — at least, not to my sensibilities. If you’re the sort of person who fears UI changes — and if we’re honest they don’t always make […]
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Do you see a pitch black window when you open Firefox on Ubuntu 23.04? If so, you’re not alone. Thing is, until today, I thought I was alone. I thought this issue, which I’ve only experienced when using Ubuntu’s default Wayland session and the preinstalled Mozilla Firefox snap app — i.e. a config that should “just work” in theory — was a quirk of my Lunar system. Or worse: my fault (I do install/tweak my system a lot). Well I’m relieved to say I’m not to blame, and neither are you. Firefox’s black screen of death in Lunar is actually […]
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A clutch of Ubuntu fixes features in the latest update to Parallels Desktop, a popular proprietary and paid virtualization suite for macOS. If you’re now scratching your head wondering why you’re reading about Mac software on an Ubuntu blog I have to say …You do have a point. However, not everyone uses Ubuntu (or indeed other Linux distros or desktops OSes) on bare metal. Some don’t use it out of choice/convenience, while others are limited to only being able to boot macOS because of their job, it’s a work device, etc. Thus virtual machine software like Parallels Desktop has a […]
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If you’re looking to trick your GNOME Shell desktop out with a classy new taskbar extension that’s low on system resources check out DashBar. Admittedly GNOME Shell is not short of taskbar, panel, and dock extensions. A wide range of alternatives are available, from household names1 like Dash to Panel and Dash to Dock through to niche, nuanced offerings like BaBar Lite, and now DashBar. DashBar has no preferences at all. That’s its USP; it works how the way it works, and if that way isn’t for you, use something else! Lots of options are exciting but they add overhead. […]
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Looking for a quick and easy way to resize multiple images on Ubuntu? You could use an image resizing app that handles batch conversions. Several terrific ones can be found in Ubuntu’s repos, many utilising the power of Imagemagick (which itself can be used standalone from the command line). Those methods are valid and in most cases preferable as they offer advanced configuration, cater to edge cases, and are able to perform additional actions at the same time. But you can also resize images straight from Nautilus, Ubuntu’s file manager. I find this especially efficient as I can do it […]
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A beta build of the upcoming Bodhi Linux 7.0 release is available to download. For those unfamiliar with it, Bodhi Linux is a lightweight Linux distro based on Ubuntu long-term support releases. It uses an Enlightenment-based desktop and Moksha window manager by default. The distro is notable for its resource efficiency and modularity, both enable it to run well on low-end hardware. Bodhi Linux 7.0 is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. This foundation means users get access to better hardware support, security and performance improvements, and a repo stocked to the rafters with newer versions of apps, tools, and software. […]
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Want to hide the top bar in Ubuntu when a window is placed near it? With a nifty GNOME extension you can! It works like this: Simple, huh? Ubuntu makes it easy to auto-hide the Ubuntu dock (the icon bar that sits on the left-hand side of the screen by default) out-of-the-box. You just open the Settings app, go to the Ubuntu Desktop section, and flick a switch. Alas, there’s not a similar option to hide the top bar (this is the panel stripped across the top of the screen). So if you want to the top bar to hide […]
This post, Want to Hide the Top Bar in Ubuntu? Here’s How is from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of Mozilla Firefox is rolling out across Windows, macOS and, more importantly to us, Linux. Firefox 113 is an interesting update that enhances the browser’s capabilities in a number of areas. While none are singular upsells that might convince someone to switch browser wholesale they are, nonetheless, further finesse that faithful fans of this FOSS browser are sure to enjoy. So what’s got me most excited? You know how Firefox has a nifty picture-in-picture mode (PIP) that lets you “pop out” videos on select streaming sites (like YouTube) so you can watch content while you’re doing other […]
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Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds are now available to download. Having given the next release a magnificent mythical codename and opened the archives for development, developers have now spun up the first daily builds of Ubuntu 23.10 and made them available to download. As I said in my post when Ubuntu 23.10 development kicked off, it’s still too early in the development cycle for any substantive changes (beyond initial sync) to show. So if you’re sat salivating at the prospect of sampling a swathe of new and exciting stuff — sorry, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for that 😉. Daily […]
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In this guide I show you how to create a wifi hotspot on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and the recent Ubuntu 23.04 release. Why would you want to do this? Well, before able to share your internet connection with other people (though more commonly, other devices) is a basic feature that most operating systems (desktop and mobile) offer. Ubuntu is no different. The most common use case for this is sharing a wired internet connection from a PC or laptop as a wireless connection that other devices (e.g., mobiles, tablets, etc) can connect to wirelessly. You need to have some kind […]
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Wallpapers – you know I love ’em. Ubuntu 23.04 comes with a small selection of (largely lobster themed) wallpapers out of the box. The choice is neither vast nor varied so you may find yourself looking for some additional ones to liven up your desktop. Well, one fast and easy way to quickly add more high-quality wallpapers to Ubuntu is to install the gnome-backgrounds package. This is available in the Ubuntu repos, though you’ll need to install it using the command line as Ubuntu Software doesn’t show a result for it). This package contains the “official” GNOME wallpaper which you’ll […]
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We’re a-go — development has officially started on Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur”. “We’re pleased to announce that Mantic Minotaur is now open for development. auto-sync has been enabled and will run soon”, Ubuntu’s Graham Inggs’ writes in a post on Ubuntu’s main development mailing list. “As usual, we expect a large influx of builds and autopkgtests in this initial period, which will cause delays. Please help with fixing any breakage that occurs,” they add. Excited? Haha, don’t be — not yet! 😉 At this formative stage in development there isn’t anything “new” for me to mention, much less screenshot for […]
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Spotify for Linux user? You’ll notice that the desktop app looks a little different next time you open it. The music streaming service, which recently passed 515 million monthly active users, rolled out a redesign of its desktop app on Windows and macOS last week. That revamp is now hitting the official Spotify for Linux client — though it appears to be a server-side change rather than a client update. Don’t panic unnecessarily because, as redesigns go, this one isn’t that bad — though (naturally) not everyone is a fan. Some users feel the new look is “so cluttered” and […]
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Fancy talking to ChatGPT from your Linux desktop without opening a web browser? Well, using Bavarder (if I’ve spelt it right) you can. This new app is written in Python and GTK4/libadwaita and its premise is simple: ask ChatGPT something, receive a reply, then quickly copy the answer (or your question) to the clipboard ready to paste elsewhere. As the user interface is incredibly straightforward you won’t need an AI (or a half-rate blogger) to understand it. You type your query in the top box, hit the blue send button, then wait for a generated reply to appear in the […]
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Linux Mint 21.2 is be the next major update to this popular Ubuntu-based Linux distribution and, when it arrives, it’ll be sporting some In his latest monthly update, Linux Mint’s lead developer details work done to improve the look of tooltips, making them more consistent between apps and within the Cinnamon desktop. Right now, in Linux Mint 21.1 and earlier, the appearance of tooltips will differ depending on the app toolkit. Keen to harmonise the aesthetic, Linux Mint 21.2 colours tooltips based on the system’s chosen accent colour. Since Mint’s default accent colour is blue tooltips will default, in the […]
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Ubuntu 23.04 ships with GNOME 44 and if, like some, you’d prefer to access MPRIS controls from there, there’s a new extension on hand to help. Quick Settings Audio Panel is a new GNOME extension designed for GNOME 44. Its task is simple: create a dedicated audio section in the Quick Settings menu and move audio-related controls there. The master volume slider (and microphone slider, though doesn’t stay permanently visible) are moved into a separate section that at the bottom of the Quick Settings ajar from the rest. The MPRIS control applet also moves from the Notification/Calendar shade and into […]
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Ubuntu 18.04 ‘Bionic Beaver’ was a bountiful release that brought a bunch of brilliant improvements to the fore — but alas, the end is nigh. Well, kind of. Ubuntu 18.04 hits end-of-life on May 31, 2023 — but, importantly, it only affects standard support. Ubuntu Pro Subscribers get Extended Support Maintenance (ESM) on Ubuntu 18.04 for a further 5 years, pushing the Beaver’s true EOL date out to 2028. Not sure which support you get? Then you almost certainly have standard support. Ubuntu Pro is not automatic but something you have to specifically sign-up for it (it’s free for personal […]
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Sometimes I come across an app, a script, or an extension that does something pretty minor that most people — even myself, sometimes — won’t have need for. And… I kinda want to write about it. Typically, I don’t because the sort of comments those posts get puts me off. Some folks assume that if I blog about something I’m somehow trying to suggest it’s “the best” for a given task. That is rarely the case; I simply like to showcase choice, make people aware of alternatives, surface different ways of doing things, and so on. But today I thought: […]
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The Ubuntu 23.10 codename has been revealed — and it’s a marvellous moniker. As per Launchpad, home of Ubuntu development, Ubuntu 23.10 is codenamed “Mantic Minotaur”. This Machiavellian mandate may manifest as a milestone worthy of …Nope, I’m running out of words beginning with M — but what does it mean? Well, ‘Mantic‘ is an adjective relating to divination or prophecy. A ‘Minotaur‘ is, as I’m sure most of you know, a mythical creature from Greek legend shaped half like a man and half like a bull. Together they mean… Well, nothing. Ubuntu codenames no longer carry the kind of […]
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If you make the upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 and try to run ‘pip install’ you’ll notice it now throws an error – but it’s not a bug. The reason why the pip install command doesn’t work in Ubuntu 23.04 is down to an intentional shift in policy (also taken in Ubuntu’s upstream, Debian) to avoid conflicts between the Python package manager and Ubuntu’s underlying APT. Basically, you can’t run pip install outside a virtual environment in Ubuntu 23.04. If you try to, you get a “externally managed environment” error similar to this: The good news is that there are a […]
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If you’re an avid user of AppImages wondering why they don’t appear to work in Ubuntu 23.04, I’ve got you covered. But maybe you don’t know there was an issue? On earlier versions of Ubuntu you download an .appimage, mark it executable (i.e. give it permission to run through the file manager’s Properties dialog), then double-click on it to open it. The app appears, you use it, everyone’s happy. In Ubuntu 23.04 you can’t do that. Lest anyone’s face redden, the reason why they don’t work is not down to any kind of ideological-imposed limitation. Rather, Ubuntu 23.04 uses a […]
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A new version of the Linux kernel is out with an assortment of hardware, performance, and security improvements. Announcing the release of Linux 6.3 over on the Linux kernel mailing list (LKML) Linus Torvalds remarked “…here we are, right on schedule, with the 6.3 release out and ready for your enjoyment”. So what’s new? Let’s take a breezy whip (and I do mean breezy) through the new n’ notable. Linux 6.3: New Features As you’d expect Linux kernel 6.3 features a ton of enablement and support for upcoming and yet-to-be-released CPUs and graphics hardware from Intel and AMD. As exciting […]
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If you use Google Chrome (or Chromium, before anyone hisses) you may have noticed that websites you visit in it don’t respect your dark mode preference on Linux. The window chrome totally matches, but the content of web pages and chrome://urls (which do support dark mode) don’t change. Here’s an example in Google Chrome 112 (which at the time of writing is the most recent stable release). When I load the redesigned Flathub website with dark mode enabled on my system the website content remains light despite supporting the prefers-color-scheme media query: Light remains the default when loading other websites […]
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I told myself I wasn’t going to write a list of things to do after installing Ubuntu 23.04 because, honestly, Ubuntu doesn’t need that much tweaking these days — I think that’s called progress 😌. And then… Well, then I installed Ubuntu 23.04 on my old Lenovo laptop (tangent: it was running 22.04 LTS and I didn’t have the patience to upgrade it to Ubuntu 22.10, and then upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 – I know, I’m lazy). Turns out, there are still a few post-install tweaks I like to make — a few are specific to this release (well, GNOME […]
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Arriving alongside the Ubuntu 23.04 release are new versions of official community flavours. This time around there’s a newbie in the pack: Ubuntu Cinnamon, welcomed into the Ubuntu flavour family back in March after several years as an unofficial Ubuntu remix. In this post I share a concise overview of what new features and changes are present in the most popular Ubuntu flavours, along with downloads links so you can download them to test out yourself. Unless otherwise noted, all flavours inherit Ubuntu’s foundational packages, so you get the same Linux 6.2 kernel, updated graphics drivers, app updates, refreshed tooling, […]
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It’s alive — Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” is now available to download. This update is the latest short-term release of the Ubuntu Linux operating system and is supported by 9 months of ongoing support, bug fixes, and critical app updates. This might not sound like a long time but Ubuntu 23.10 is released in 6 months time and users of this release will be able to upgrade to it. If you asked me to describe Ubuntu 23.04 in one word I’d choose: “improvement”. Nothing in this release is revolutionary – but that’s not a bad thing. There’s a big user […]
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Want to upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 from Ubuntu 22.10? If you’re full up-to-date and you have an active internet connection, you can – and in this post I run through the steps to do it. As Ubuntu 22.10 is end of life in July so anyone using it will have to upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 to continue getting updates. If you don’t want the hassle of needing to upgrade every 6 to 9 months you might want to consider doing a fresh install of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS as it’s supported until 2027. Anyway, you’re here cos you want to upgrade, so let’s […]
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Ubuntu Pro subscribers will be able to apply reboot-free updates to more Linux kernels from July. As spotted by our friends at Neowin, Canonical announced Livepatch support for Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernels starting this summer. The first HWE kernel being covered as part of this support extension is Linux 6.2, which will be backported from the Ubuntu 23.04 release and pushed out to users of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Livepatch is a feature only available on long-term support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu for users with an active Ubuntu Pro subscription. When enabled, Livepatch allows users to install kernel updates (on eligible […]
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The Ubuntu 23.04 release is out on April 20 and to help hype its arrival I put together a video to show off the most striking changes. Not that news of what’s new in Ubuntu 23.04 will be a surprise to those of you who read this blog regularly — oh, I know: I make that exact same joke every six months I post one of “these”. Thing is, I could ask ChatGPT for new material but since it was trained on my typo-laden content, it’d likely be just as derivative 😅. All told, Ubuntu 23.04 is a minor but […]
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The latest monthly release of Mozilla Firefox is available to download, right on schedule. Firefox 112 intros a handful of changes that gives some extra buffs to this brilliant open-source web-browser. Like what? Well, Mozilla mention the ability to right-click in a password field to access a ‘reveal password’ option. This sounds a bit of a strange addition, granted. But not all password fields pre-populated with your saved credentials offer an option to un-asterisk credentials, so it may be useful. Keeping with the “nice improvement, but I probably won’t use this” vein, Firefox 112 can import browser data from the […]
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A new version of free, open-source video editor OpenShot is available to download. OpenShot 3.1 is primarily a bug-fix update to last year’s OpenShot 3.0 release, which was notable for introducing several major improvements including enhanced real-time video playback, support for multithreaded video codecs, and several significant buffs to the timeline. But there are some notable additions to talk about. Export options are expanded by the addition of more than 400 export profiles. These profiles cover an array of common resolution/frame rates/aspect ratios and the profiles are fully searchable, making it easy to find the one you’re looking for. OpenShot […]
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When Linux Mint 21.2 is released this June it’ll come with a selection of new visual “styles” for users to choose from. Announcing this visual buff in its latest monthly update, Mint says the feature will simplify the Cinnamon desktop’s extensive customisation capabilities whilst still satisfying those looking to fine-tune the way their desktop looks and feels. “A style has up to three modes: mixed, dark and light. Each of these modes can contain color “variants”. A variant is a combination of themes which work well together,” Mint says of its new feature. Effectively, Linux MInt’s new “Styles” are “one-click” […]
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I’m currently recording footage for my upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 video and, while doing so, reminded myself that there’s a hidden setting I always use that I don’t think I’ve ever written about on this blog. Please don’t get excited by my use of the term “hidden”. You’re probably aware that this setting exists, you just might not have known where to find it, hence the “hidden” qualifier. Whenever I open a new app window it “spawns” in the center of my screen, like so: I find this behaviour predictable, reliable, and a few other -bles as well. For me, centred […]
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If you’ve been dying to download the Ubuntu 23.03 beta it’s time to go get it — downloads are now officially available! This beta build arrives in advance of the final stable release of Ubuntu 23.04, which is due out April 20. It’s purpose: to let folks like you and I try it out early to find bugs, breakages, and report any show-stopping quirks. As Ubuntu 23.04 is a short-term release (supported for just 9 months) there aren’t reams of revolutionary changes present in this released, which is codenamed the “Lunar Lobster”. But there is a lot to like! Ubuntu […]
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Looking for an easy way to add application shortcuts to the desktop on Ubuntu? If so, the ably named Add to Desktop GNOME extension is what you need. This simple, straight-forward add-ons makes creating desktop shortcut for your favourite apps a total cinch. How cinch-y? Gawk at this gif: you just open the Applications grid in Ubuntu, right-click on an any application shortcut you see, select the “Add to Desktop”, and bam: job done: You may have tried dragging icons off the Ubuntu Dock and dropping them on the desktop – but that doesn’t work. You may have tried dragging […]
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What’s the best way to sample the Cinnamon desktop on top of an Ubuntu base? You may be minded to answer Linux Mint (and that wouldn’t be a wrong answer) but with the upcoming release of Ubuntu 23.04 there’ll be a new choice to consider. The Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix team have been coaching for official status among Ubuntu’s family of flavours for a while. This week they achieved it. Following a vote of Ubuntu’s Technical Board, Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 will be first official release of this spicy new flavour. As you can probably guess, Ubuntu Cinnamon is a community flavour […]
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Sometimes when I shutdown Ubuntu …it takes ages to actually power off. Am I alone? Am I unreasonable? I’m not sure, but I am highly caffeinated — massive props to all the wonderful folks who buy me a coffee (it really does get spent on coffee) — and I haven’t written anything for about 5 days. So, I’m gonna give you something generative AI simply cannot: spiel. Slow Ubuntu Shutdowns Are Real See, when I hit shutdown (or run sudo shutdown now in a terminal) and expect Ubuntu to do the whole “going… to gone” process in around 5-10 seconds, […]
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Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS is now available to download. A point-six release?! They’re a bit unusual. Long-term support releases typically only receive five point releases during their support cycle so what’s going on? I’ll quote Ubuntu’s Graham Inggs. They explained why this exceptional release was required in a mailing list post sent earlier today (March 23): “Unlike previous point releases, 20.04.6 is a refresh of the amd64 installer media after recent key revocations, re-enabling their usage on Secure Boot enabled systems.” You can read more about the issue on Launchpad (not that you need to – it’s now fixed, after all). […]
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An updated version of the Ubuntu font boasting better support for non-latin languages is nearing release. Ubuntu developers want to ship a new revision of its iconic typeface in next month’s Ubuntu 23.04 release but aren’t 100% certain if it is 100% ready for mainstream deployment yet. Hence the need for community feedback. Since its introduction back in 2010 the Ubuntu font has taken on a life of its own, extending far beyond the confines of the desktop it was made for. I regularly see the Ubuntu font being used in all kinds of content, from magazine ads to bus […]
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The GNOME project has announced the release of a new version of their hugely popular open-source desktop environment. GNOME 44 includes a number of core improvements spanning eye-catching new features through to more subtle enhancements and lower-level buffs. Last year’s GNOME 43 release was quite the instalment and everything shipping here, in GNOME 44 continue steadfast in the same direction. I took readers through the best GNOME 44 features on my other Linux blog a couple of weeks ago. If you read that post — thank you 🙏 — you’ll be clued up on the core changes. If you didn’t […]
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Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” is released on Thursday April 20, 2023. As a short-term release, Lunar gets 9 months of ongoing updates, security patches, and critical fixes. That might not sound very long but Ubuntu 23.10 arrives 6 months after and users will be encouraged to upgrade to that. Details out of the way. In this post I take a closer look at the Ubuntu 23.04’s new features, changes, and enhancements – though keep in mind that everything you read about below is still (somewhat) subject to change until April 20. Let’s dive in 🦞. New Features in Ubuntu 23.04 […]
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Remember when Ubuntu said it was getting serious about gaming? Well, it hasn’t forgotten entirely — it’s once again asking gamers to take part in a fresh bout of testing for its Steam snap. Steam is available on Ubuntu through traditional packaging methods but Canonical sees its Steam snap as the real future of the games platform on Ubuntu. That kinda of makes sense: it’s a tad easier to cater for the tangle of 32-bit libraries older games require using a sandboxed, separated Snap file system. “Since publishing steam as a snap under the “Early Access” banner, we’ve been working […]
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Ready for your first look at the new default wallpaper for Ubuntu 23.04? Course you are! And with a codename like the “Lunar Lobster” it’s only natural that the designers of the official Ubuntu 23.04 background chose to lean lovingly into the ludicrous label with a lascivious zeal. So here, in all its compressed JPEG glory, is Ubuntu’s luxe new lead: Ubuntu’s designers had an unenviable task in translating such a wacky codename into a well considered graphic. There are stars! A moon! And… whatever those triangles in the corners are. The constellation motif is, at first blush, a rather […]
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Mozilla Firefox 111 is available to download. Shocked? Course you’re not! The latest release arrives bang on schedule, one month to the day of the Firefox 110 release (which was notable for featuring WebGL improvements on Linux). Alas, the change-log this time around is a little (perceptually) leaner. Mozilla say Windows users will find that native notifications are enabled by default (which is great for them, I guess), and that users of Firefox Relay can ‘opt-in to create Relay email masks directly from the Firefox credential manager’ (which is great for them too, I guess). Elsewhere, web apps used in […]
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When Ubuntu 23.04 arrives in April it will be using Linux kernel 6.2, the most recent kernel version ahead of the distro's next release – nice!
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MusicPod is a promising new music, podcast, and internet radio app for Ubuntu desktops that's built with Flutter. Learn more inside.
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Quarter tiling on Ubuntu is a step closer to reality, with rumours devs want to add popular window tiling GNOME extension to default installs.
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With more than 2,000 apps available and daily downloads of over 700,000 (!) it’s fair to say Flathub is now the de-facto ‘app store’ for Linux, not just for Flatpak apps. And things show no signs of slowing down. Endless CEO and GNOME board president Rob McQueen has shared a new blog post to bring the Linux community bang up-to-date on the effort going on behind the scenes to get Flathub here, and what will be required to get Flathub to where it wants to go next. And (to be a party pooper and spoil that post) the key aims […]
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We look look at the latest changes and new features added to Pano, a visually-rich clipboard manager extension for GNOME Shell desktops.
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Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27 on Kubuntu 22.10 using the Kubuntu Backports PPA. Learn how to add the PPA to upgrade Plasma in minutes.
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Create a custom Ubuntu ISO using Cubic, an open-source GTK app with an easy-to-use interface. The app works on Ubuntu 18.04 and up.
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A new network installer is in development for Ubuntu 23.04. The size of the ISO could be as low as 140MIB making it a good fit for USB & CDs.
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A big update to TUXEDO Computers' Ubuntu-based Linux distro is out, shipping the latest KDE Plasma release, Linux kernel 6.1, and a bit more.
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Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS has been released, and is available to download. The 2nd point release adds a new Linux kernel & updated graphics drivers.
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Flatpak will no longer be available “out-of-the-box” in any of Ubuntu’s official flavors. In a surprise move, Ubuntu developers have agreed to stop shipping Flatpak, preinstalled Flatpak apps, and any plugins needed to install Flatpak apps through a GUI software tool in the default package across all eight of Ubuntu’s official flavors, starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 release. Ubuntu says the decision will ‘improve the out-of-the-box Ubuntu experience’ for new users by making it clearer about what the “Ubuntu experience” is. They reason, someone using a flavor offering Flatpak might assume the tech will get the same level of […]
This post, Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The first Linux kernel release of 2023 is here. Linux kernel 6.2 features new hardware support, security fixes, and file system speed boosts.
This post, Linux Kernel 6.2 Released, This is What’s New is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The 'Horizontal OSD' extension for Linux Mint's Cinnamon desktop does what it says: it makes on-screen bubbles when changing volume/brightness, horizontal.
This post, Get Horizontal OSD for Brightness & Volume Changes on Linux Mint is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Got a time-sensitive workload that would benefit from the reliability and security of Ubuntu? Well, you're in luck – Real-time Ubuntu is now available.
This post, Canonical Announce Availability of Real-Time Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Firefox 110 is available to download. This update to the web browser brings better WebGL performance and lets users import data from Vivaldi & Opera GX.
This post, Firefox 110 Arrives with WebGL Performance Improvements is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
KDE Plasma 5.27 is here with various changes, including a new window tiling UX, Flatpak app permissions, and a multitude of multi-monitor improvements.
This post, Final Version of KDE Plasma 5 Released – This is What’s New is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the Nautilus file manager is available in the latest daily builds of Ubuntu 23.04 ‘Lunar Lobster’. If you read our sister site omg! linux you’ll already know of one particular change that makes Nautilus 44 an especially exciting update: the return of Expandable Folders in List View option. Accessible from the file manager’s Preferences panel, this opt-in behaviour makes it faster to flit through folders to find a specific file when using list view (this feature doesn’t work in icon view). When enabled you’re able to expand and collapse folders tree view style to maintain a […]
This post, Expandable Folder View Returns to Nautilus in Ubuntu 23.04 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
New emoji? Ubuntu's got 'em - well, the latest Google's Noto Color Emoji font has. Ubuntu devs have released an update that brings these emoji to LTS users.
This post, Unicode 15.0 Emoji Now Supported in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Canonical has joined the Academy Software Foundation to help promote and advocate for the use of open source software in the media and film industries.
This post, Canonical Joins Academy Software Foundation as Premier Member is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
There are a latte of improvements on offer in the latest version of Caffeine, a GNOME extension that helps prevent your computer from sleeping.
This post, Caffeine GNOME Extension Adds Support for Quick Settings, Timers is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
This tip won't change your life but it may make moving files in Ubuntu a bit faster. When enabled you can drag a file over a folder and hover to open it.
This post, Enable This Nautilus Setting to Move Files Faster on Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The new LibreOffice 7.5 release is available download. In this post I look at what changes and features the new version offers, plus where to download it.
This post, LibreOffice 7.5 Released with New Icons, PDF Export Options + More is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
GNOME Shell's 'Activities' button is iconic, but could the space it takes be put to better use? One GNOME extension developer thinks so, and this is how…
This post, This GNOME Extension Makes the ‘Activities’ Label More Useful is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux Mint 21.2 will be released at the end of June. It has the codename "Victoria". New features will be added to the login screen and the Pix photo app.
This post, Linux Mint 21.2 Reveals Codename, Teases Planned Features is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
See what's new in elementary OS 7, the latest stable release of this Ubuntu-based Linux distro. From UI changes, to new apps, to powerful new features.
This post, elementary OS 7 Released, This is What’s New is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of ONLYOFFICE, an open source office suite for Windows, macOS, and Linux, is available. In this post we look at the latest features.
This post, ONLYOFFICE 7.3 Released with SmartArt, Password Protection is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Skype (remember that?) continues to release new updates of its desktop apps, including on Linux. In this post I look at what's changed in the latest update.
This post, Skype Linux App Gets Colour Options, Realtime AI Voice Translation is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Want to change the battery indicator icon in Ubuntu 22.10? Using this GNOME extension you can pick from 3 alternative battery icons, including a circle.
This post, An Extension to Change Battery Indicator Icon in GNOME Shell is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Canonical has made Ubuntu Pro generally available. Ubuntu Pro allows you to run an Ubuntu LTS release for 10 years with more critical security updates.
This post, Ubuntu Pro is Now Available to Anyone Who Wants It is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Learn how to install Wine on Ubuntu from the official Wine Linux repository. My guide is ideal for those who want to install the latest stable release.
This post, How to Install the Latest Version of Wine on Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Telegram asked Ubuntu to transition users of its deb app to the officially-maintained Snap. The package is present in Lunar and may come to stable builds.
This post, Ubuntu 23.04 Makes Telegram a Deb-to-Snap Transitional Package is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Developers uncorked a brand new release of Wine, the open source compatibility layer that enables Windows apps to run on Linux. A substantial update, Wine 8.0 is distilled from a year’s worth of active development. A wealth of improvements are provided across nearly every part, from the performance to UI. If you sample the fortnightly dev releases of Wine you will be familiar with, and already benefitting from the bulk of “what’s new”. Notable highlights in Wine 8.0 include the completion of PE conversion, meaning all modules can be built in PE format. Wine devs say this work is an […]
This post, Wine 8.0 Released, This is What’s New (Spoiler: A Lot) is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Want fresh wallpapers, daily? Try Damask for Linux, recently added to Flathub. This GTK app can set daily background from Bing, NASA, Unsplash, & Wallhaven.
This post, ‘Damask’ is a New Wallpaper App for Linux Desktops is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Better window snapping is coming to Ubuntu Budgie, with devs adding drag to snap quarter window tiling and asymmetrical tiling when holding modifier keys.
This post, How to Test Ubuntu Budgie’s Improved Window Snapping Feature is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
"Unexpected complications" have delayed the second point release to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. The new HWE stack will also arrive later than planned.
This post, Ubuntu 22.04.2 Point Release Delayed by 2 Weeks is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Heard about Ubuntu's new installer built with Flutter? Well, it's shipping by default in the latest Ubuntu 23.04 daily builds - I grabbed an ISO to test it.
This post, Ubuntu’s New Installer is Shaping Up Nicely is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mozilla Firefox 109 is the latest version of this open-source, cross-platform web browser. This update adds a new unified extensions button, plus bug fixes.
This post, Firefox 109 Adds New Extensions Button, Manifest V3 Support is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A look at the latest updates to Burn My Windows and Desktop Clock GNOME extensions, with more personalisation options offers by these blingy bolt-ons.
This post, ‘Burn My Windows’ & ‘Desktop Clock’ GNOME Extensions Updated is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A quick post about the latest update to Black Box, a GTK4/libadwaita terminal emulator for Linux desktop that focuses on being 'beautiful' – and yup, it is!
This post, Black Box (GTK4 Terminal App) Adds Transparency, Sixel Support is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
We all dream of software updates that makes our computers faster. Now System76, who develop the Pop!_OS Linux distro, have made it a reality.
This post, New Pop!_OS Update Makes (Some) Computers Faster is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
As the Ubuntu 23.04 development cycle gets underway we’re learning more about what’s in store for Ubuntu and its growing family of flavours. Xubuntu, one of the more minimally-minded spins, has revealed its planning to release a new ‘Xubuntu Minimal’ image starting with Ubuntu 23.04. It’s an expansion of the Xubuntu Core effort started back in 2015 but with a big ol’ rubber-stamp of officialdom on it. In a post to the Ubuntu developer mailing list, Steve Langasek says Xubuntu Minimal “…parallels existing minimal install targets from the Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server images to provide a smaller install footprint […]
This post, Xubuntu 23.04 Will Offer CD-ROM Size ‘Minimal’ Image is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Want to add Markdown preview to the Gedit text editor? With the Gedit Markdown Preview extension (catchy name, eh?) you can do so quickly. See how!
This post, How to Add Markdown Preview to Gedit Text Editor is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new ‘window focus’ animation for GNOME Shell is available to test. GNOME designers are currently exploring a different way to indicate ‘focus’ in GNOME Shell. One idea is to remove the app icon, name, and menu that appears in the Top Bar (next to Activities button – this was retained to indicate the app in focus) and replace it with a window animation As is, user testing shows the (what’s left of the) app menu confuses users. “They think that it’s a task switcher, a shortcut to a specific app, or don’t understand what it is at all. It […]
This post, Help Test GNOME’s New ‘Window Focus’ Behaviour is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
We look at Time Switch, a GTK app makes it easy to schedule a restart or shutdown on Ubuntu. It also allows you to run a custom command at a specific time.
This post, Use This App to Schedule Restart/Shutdowns on Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Things were looking promising for ZFS on Ubuntu. In 2019 Ubuntu was the first major Linux distro to offer a ZFS install option. Sadly, things have changed.
This post, The Future of ZFS on Ubuntu Desktop is Not Looking Good is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
I look at using Nala on Ubuntu. Nala is a great alternative to Ubuntu's default package manager. It's faster, nice to look at, and more featured than APT.
This post, Nala is a Neat Alternative to Apt on Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mouse cursor effects are a great way to draw attention to an area of the screen during screencasts and presentations. Here's how to enable one in Ubuntu.
This post, How to Highlight Mouse Cursor in Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Sometimes things are just cute, y’know? Like, not everything made for Linux needs to plug an existential hole, break down boundaries, revolutionise computing as we know it™, etc. It’s fine for things to exist just because they’re nice to look at — and hey: if my site’s been a champion of anything these past 13 years, it’s of borderline useless tat to litter our desktops with). I’m saying all of this upfront — hi, btw 👋 — because I know that the thing I’m spotlighting below is going to leave a few of you reading this scratching your chins in […]
This post, Monitorets is a Cute System Monitor Widget for Linux is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
An updated version of open source graphics app Pinta is available to download. Pinta 2.1 arrives roughly one year after the last update, which saw the debut of the Pinta 2.0 series using GTK3 and a modern version of .NET. Did you know that the Pinta is directly inspired by the Windows programme Paint.NET? Yup, so if you were a fan of that in your Windows days do check Pinta out! So what’s new in Pinta 2.1? The big one? WebP support. This efficient image format is finally gaining a lot of traction (quite deservedly) and with Ubuntu recently added […]
This post, Pinta 2.1 Released with WebP Support, Wayland Tweaks + More is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Keep that vital reminder, task, or goal in mind with this simple GNOME extension. It lets you enter text (including emoji) and see it on the GNOME panel.
This post, One Thing – Put a Single Task/Goal in the GNOME Panel is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Using this free, open source app you can convert an image into another image format on Linux, including converting an image to a PDF. Learn more inside.
This post, ‘Converter’ is a Slick Image Conversion Tool for Linux is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you're an avid follower of financial markets or the stock price of specific companies then definitely invest in one of these 2 GNOME extensions.
This post, Easily Monitor Stock Prices with these GNOME Extensions is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Edubuntu is a forgotten member of Ubuntu family focused on educators, schools & students. Now, 9 years on from its last release, it's heading back to class.
This post, Ubuntu’s Education-Focused Flavour is Heading Back to Class is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
I look back at the best Linux distro releases of 2022. Ubuntu is (obviously) included, but so are non-Ubuntu based Linux distros like Fedora and Manjaro.
This post, The 5 Best Linux Distros of 2022 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
It's easy to disable the apt awareness message that appears each time you run an apt update on Ubuntu 22.04 Why is it needed at all? We discuss inside.
This post, Don’t Like Ubuntu’s Apt “News” Feature? You Can Turn it Off is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The latest CoverflowAltTab extension update intros a redesigned settings panel and improves multi-monitor support to deliver a slick way to switch apps.
This post, Coverflow AltTab GNOME Extension Gets a Major Update is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A quick run-through of what's been added to Ear Tag, a beautifully designed utility for editing the metadata of audio files quickly, and easily on Linux.
This post, Ear Tag (GTK Audio Tag Editor) Gets a Major Performance Boost is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
There's a brand new effects included in the latest update to the Burn My Windows GNOME extension — if you're a fan of Rick & Morty it'll be very familiar.
This post, Rick & Morty Window Closing Effect for Linux (Because lol) is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you're looking for a new icon set for Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro) don't pass up the chance to sample Kora — it's a beautiful new icon theme.
This post, ‘Kora’ Icon Set Gives Your Linux Desktop a Classy New Look is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
This neat extension for the Nautilus file manager allows you to right-click on files and folders to write text notes (with Markdown support) or add emblems.
This post, Annotate Files & Folders in Nautilus with this Extension is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Haruna is a modern Q-based video player for Linux desktops. In this post I preview its core features (lots) and the ones that make it a little bit special.
This post, ‘Haruna’ is a Slick Qt-Based Video Player with YouTube Support is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Desktop Clock is a GNOME extension that …I'm sure you can guess! Ubuntu-friendly, the timepiece is highly customisable, and also displays the current date.
This post, This Simple Desktop Clock GNOME Extension Looks Great on Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Corluma lets you control Philips Hue lights on Ubuntu, as well as smart lights from LIFX and NanoLeaf, and equipment using Arduino. Learn more inside.
This post, Use ‘Corluma’ to Control Hue, LIFX & Nanoleaf Lights on Ubuntu is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux Mint 21.1 ‘Vera’ is available to download, ahead of an official release announcement expected soon. This point release of Linux Mint rides atop of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and it includes a curated crop of user-interface tweaks, bug fixes, and performance improvements – though there are no major changes from the Linux Mint 21.1 beta released earlier this month (and if you use that beta you can upgrade to final release). So what’s new exactly? Well, Linux Mint 21.1 ships with the Cinnamon 5.6 desktops environment by default. This version of Cinnamon offers a couple of new features, including a new Corner […]
This post, Linux Mint 21.1 is Now Available to Download is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A quick guide showing you how to upgrade to Xfce 4.18 on Xubuntu 22.04 LTS and 22.10 using the Xubuntu QA Staging PPA – though caution is advised.
This post, Want to Upgrade to Xfce 4.18 on Xubuntu 22.04? Here’s How is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Is shipping the file roller utility unnecessary now that Nautilus, Ubuntu's default file manager, can compress and extract common archive formats?
This post, Ubuntu Debates Removing ‘Archive Manager’ from Default Install is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The latest daily builds of Ubuntu 23.04 have a distinctly new vibe thanks to a unique development update that is something of a first for Ubuntu.
This post, Ubuntu 23.04 Dev Builds Now Look a Pinch More Appealing… is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
This post won't appeal to many, but hey: at the very least it'll be there for me to reference next time I want to rejig the clock layout on my Xfce install.
This post, 4 Alternative Clock Layouts to Try in Xfce 4.18 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Are you a fan of Ubuntu's desktop icons extension but wish it did a bit more? There's an enhanced GTK4 version you need to check out. Why? Come see.
This post, This GTK4 Fork of Ubuntu’s Desktop Icons Extension is Neat is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of Kdenlive, a Qt-based open source video editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux is out. I run through what's new and where to download it.
This post, Kdenlive 22.12 Released with “Major Overhaul” of Edit Markers is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mozilla Firefox 108 is the latest version of the browser to be made available to download. We look at the changes it offers to users, and where to download.
This post, Mozilla Firefox 108 is Now Available to Download is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The Linux kernel 6.1 release is full of welcome changes, which we look at in this post. From new hardware support to networking, security, and performance.
This post, Linux Kernel 6.1 Released, This is What’s New is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of OpenShot, a free, open-source video editor for Linux, is available to download. OpenShot 3.0 contains over 1,000 improvements and fixes, includes better stability and memory usage, and debuts interesting new performance and export capabilities. This is the first update to the non-linear video editor since last year. Jonathan Thomas, the creator of OpenShot, details the changes in a blog post, explain that he and the OpenShot team “worked tirelessly over the past 12 months to identify and fix as many stability issues as possible”. Those less familiar with the app may be unaware it has the […]
This post, Open Source Video Editing Levels Up with OpenShot 3.0 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Are you an avid gamer who loves the look of GNOME's Adwaita theme? If so, there's now an unofficial Adwaita theme for the Steam games client — amazing!
This post, Check Out This Awesome Adwaita Theme for Steam Linux Client is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Keep your music files tagged correctly with Ear Tag, a lightweight Linux app that built for quickly editing metadata for single audio files – I love it!
This post, Use ‘Ear Tag’ to Quickly Edit Audio Tags on Linux is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mastodon is now baked into the latest builds of the Vivaldi web browser. Folks are flocking to this federated social networking service in droves of late, a trend Vivaldi is well aware of. Such keen supporters of decentralised social media, they even launched their own Mastodon instance “Vivaldi Social” a few weeks back. Now they take things a step further by integrating Mastodon inside of the browser itself. Don’t panic if you don’t like the sound of this: it’s a discrete implementation that is easy to ignore or not use. Like Vivaldi’s other bells and whistles — spanning everything from […]
This post, Vivaldi Browser Now Boasts Mastodon Integration is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
G4Music bills itself as a "beautiful, fast, fluent, light weight music player" and after using it I can't disagree. Learn more about this GTK4 music app.
This post, G4Music is a GTK4 Music App for Linux Desktops is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Download Linux Mint 21.1 beta and help test it ahead of the final release. Linux Mint 21.1 features Cinnamon 5.6, new folder icons, and new settings.
This post, Linux Mint 21.1 Beta is Available to Download is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Xubuntu 23.04 ships with Flatpak and PipeWire support by default. The technologies are being introduced to provide Xubuntu with a better desktop experience.
This post, Xubuntu 23.04 Adds PipeWire & Flatpak to Default Install is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The 'MoreWaita' icon theme is a community-based project providing Adwaita style icons for a swathe of Linux apps, including VLC, Steam, Krita, and Spotify.
This post, This New Icon Theme Offers Adwaita-Style Icons for 3rd Party Apps is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Rawtherapee 5.9 is out. New features and expanded camera support ship in this update to the open-source photo editor. Learn more about what's changed.
This post, Open Source Photography App ‘RawTherapee’ Gets Big Update is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Cameractrls is an advanced webcam settings app for Linux desktops that gives you control over your webcam brightness, contrast, resolution, and frame rate.
This post, Camerctrls is a Neat Webcam Settings App for Linux is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
'Metagedit' is a powerful plugin for Gedit text editor that adds extra functionality, including encoding detection, tab sessions, line operations, and more.
This post, Metagedit is a Featured-Packed Plugin for Gedit Text Editor is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Does Ubuntu need anti-virus software? The general answer is no, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use one to run a check every now and then – use ClamAV.
This post, 20 Years in the Making: ClamAV Finally Hits Version 1.0 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Xfce 4.18 features a raft of enhancements to this lightweight desktop environment. In this post I run through the best new features and changes.
This post, Xfce 4.18 Looks Exciting – Check Out Its Best New Features is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
I spotlight a simple GNOME extension that replaces the icons for GNOME Clocks and Calendar apps with dynamic, real-time alternatives. Check it out!
This post, See Date and Time on GNOME Calendar & Clock Icons is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Developers and can now download Ubuntu 23.04 daily builds, as development of the next Ubuntu release, codenamed Lunar Lobster, is now underway.
This post, Let’s Go: Ubuntu 23.04 Daily Builds Available to Download is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
'Folder Color' lets you change the colour of folders in the file manager without switching icon pack — and the latest update adds support for Ubuntu 22.10.
This post, ‘Folder Color’ Tool Adds Support for Ubuntu 22.10 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you want to create dynamic wallpapers for GNOME 42 or later then the Dynamic Wallpaper app available on Flathub is a must — and it just got a big update.
This post, ‘Dynamic Wallpaper’ Maker for GNOME Updated with New UI is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
I highlight a new GNOME extension for GNOME 43 that reduces the width of the new Quick Settings Menu. It uses a single column of interactive pods.
This post, ‘Compact Quick Settings’ Puts GNOME’s New Menu on a Size Diet is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Transform your pixelated photos and mangled cartoon memes into smooth, high-resolution images using this neat GTK app powered by open source AI.
This post, Use ‘Upscaler’ to Enhance Low-Res Images with AI on Linux is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of Mozilla Firefox is available to download. Don't get excited, though: this is a small release – even by recent 'small release' standards!
This post, Mozilla Firefox 107 is Now Available to Download is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Yes, you can finally install GNOME extensions using the Firefox Snap on Ubuntu, without having to do anything fancy like switching Snap channel. Phew!
This post, Native Messaging Support Arrives in Stable Version of Firefox Snap is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Here's a nifty new GNOME extension that does one thing, and does it well: it displays the avatar for your user account in GNOME's Quick Settings menu.
This post, How to Display Your User Avatar in GNOME Quick Settings is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Disney+ subscribers are currently unable to access the service on Linux due to a bug in the site's analytics code freaking out when presented with Linux.
This post, It’s Not Just You: Disney+ Doesn’t Work on Linux ATM is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Search Light is a new GNOME extension that pull the native app launcher functions out of the overview and on to the desktop, like Apple's Spotlight.
This post, ‘Search Light’ is Like macOS Spotlight for GNOME Shell is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Meet Corner Bar, Linux Mint's take on the Windows 7 'show desktop' button. Designed for the Cinnamon desktop, the button can be clicked or hovered over.
This post, Linux Mint Gains a Windows-Style ‘Show Desktop’ Button is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux Lite 6.2 is out, based on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, Linux 5.15, and Xfce 4.16. Updated software, an improved upgrade tool, and misc UI tweaks feature.
This post, Linux Lite 6.2 Released, Based on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new 'Quick Settings Tweaker' GNOME extension lets you move notifications and media controls to GNOME's new settings hub, and control volume per-app.
This post, Add Notifications, Media Controls & Audio Streams to GNOME Quick Settings is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Like the look of the macOS and iOS control centre and want something similar for your KDE Plasma desktop? Well, you're in luck with this new KDE widget.
This post, A New ‘KDE Control Centre’ Widget Inspired by iOS is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Listen up, lovelies: the codename of the next legendary instalment of the Ubuntu Linux distribution is out — come learn the label devs liken 23.04 to!
This post, Ubuntu 23.04 Codename Revealed – And It’s a Lucently Likeable Label is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The latest Zorin OS 16.2 release features a swathe of improvements. In this post I take a closer look at what's new in this bright Ubuntu-based offshoot.
This post, Zorin OS 16.2 is Available to Download with Various Changes is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
I share a quick fix for blurry fonts in Mozilla Firefox when running on Wayland on Linux. No PPAs required; just run Firefox with Wayland support enabled.
This post, How to Fix Blurry Firefox on HiDPI + Wayland is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The Steam snap app is levelling up its graphics prowess, as Canonical reveals plans to make different Mesa versions available for users to switch between.
This post, Canonical’s Steam Snap Will Let You (Easily) Switch Mesa Stacks is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The perfectly titled 'Quick Settings Button Remove' extension for GNOME 43 and above lets you choose which options appear in the Quick Settings menu.
This post, Want to Hide Buttons in GNOME’s Quick Settings Menu? Use This is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Upgrading to KDE Plasma 5.26 on Kubuntu 22.10 can be done using the Kubuntu Backports PPA. In this post I show how to add the PPA to upgrade Plasma desktop.
This post, How to Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.26 on Kubuntu 22.10 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Extension Manager 0.4 is out with a mobile-friendly UI, and better adherence to GNOME HIG. A new compatibility assistant is included too, if you need it.
This post, Extension Manager 0.4 Intros Compatibility Checker, Adaptive UI is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Furthering its ambition to replicate absolutely everything in existence inside itself, the latest Vivaldi web browser release adds a productivity feature.
This post, Vivaldi Web Browser Continues Adding Every Feature, Ever is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The Linux kernel 6.0 release is full of welcome changes, which we look at in this post. From new hardware support to networking, security, and performance.
This post, Linux Kernel 6.0 Released, This is What’s New is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux Mint 21.1 is to be released Christmas time, says Linux Mint. They also reveal the codename for the release, and word on changes to desktop icons.
This post, Linux Mint 21.1 Codenamed ‘Vera’, Will Arrive at Xmas is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Connect to bluetooth devices from the new Quick Settings menu in GNOME 43 with this neat, community-made extension for GNOME Shell. It's neat!
This post, This Extension Adds Bluetooth Management to GNOME Quick Settings is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Links to download the Ubuntu 22.10 beta are live. The beta build allows users to test all of the new features in the "Kinetic Kudu" first hand, right now.
This post, Ubuntu 22.10 Beta is Now Available to Download is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
An updated version of ONLYOFFICE is available to download for Windows, macOS, and Linux. ONLYOFFICE 7.2 ships with all of the latest changes to the online version, plus some ‘unique features’ exclusive to the desktop editors, including automatic light/dark mode on Windows and macOS (the feature is present on Linux builds but doesn’t, in my testing, do what it should). Such as? Well, the new version of the Document has ligature support in text files; lets you easily insert the current heading into a table of contents; and adds a new “Headings” panel to the main toolbar (replacing the navigation […]
This post, ONLYOFFICE 7.2 Released with Misc New Features & Improvements is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
NewsFlash is a GTK-based RSS reader for Linux desktops — now it's even better thanks to libadwaita, FreshRSS support, and new settings.
This post, NewsFlash RSS Reader Has Been Ported to GTK 4 is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Don’t hate me but I’ve some bad (if not entirely unsurprising) news for the Pop!_OS fans who plan to pounce on the presumed-to-be upcoming 22.10 release: you can’t. Before anyone groans, I’m not about to deliver a trite “…cOz vAnILLa ‘bUnTu is beTtEr” punchline. Sadly, I bring word that Pop!_OS 22.10 is not going to be released this autumn — heck, it’s not even in development. System76’s software engineers want to take the time and effort prepping the next release would take and instead plough it in constructing their home-grown, Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment. Confirming the news is Pop!_OS developer […]
This post, Eager to Try Pop!_OS 22.10? Well, You Can’t… is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Realtime audio effects and support for VTS3 plugins are among the new features added to the famed open-source audio editor Audacity, out now.
This post, Audacity 3.2 Released with Realtime Effects, VST3 Support is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
It's the part of the release cycle where we (maybe just me) get excited by wallpaper, as the default background to ship in Ubuntu 22.10 is finally revealed.
This post, Ubuntu 22.10’s New Wallpaper is an Absolute Knock-Out is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Whether you’re an eager GNOME acolyte or just a casual admirer, there is a lot to enjoy in the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment. GNOME 43 arrives six months after the (rather) substantial GNOME 42 release. In many respects it’s a direction continuation of the path set out there, and contains confident collection of changes, some small, some big, but all intended to make it easier to use GNOME. I whip through the core user-facing changes in this post, share a few screenshots, and give a few of my thoughts on some of the chances based on first-hand experience of […]
This post, GNOME 43 Has Been Released, This is What’s New is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Toot, toot – a new version of epic open source kart racer SuperTuxKart is available to download with improved tracks, karts, and characters to enjoy.
This post, SuperTuxKart 1.4 Revs Up for Release with Visual Improvements is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Did you read my post on the 'unofficial' Snap Store for Ubuntu and come away as excited as I am about it's potential? Well, I've got an interesting update…
This post, That ‘Unofficial’ Snap Store We Loved? It’s Becoming Official is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Plasma Bigscreen is an open source entertainment experience powered by the same technologies used by the KDE Plasma desktop. Want details? See inside!
This post, KDE Plasma Comes to the Big Screen (Yes, Your TV) is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Paprius icon set gets an Autumn update that adds 38 new and updated app icons. The popular icon pack now covers more Linux-friendly apps, tools, and games.
This post, Papirus Icon Set’s September Update Adds 38 New Icons is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu devs are building a brand new desktop installer using Subiquity and Flutter — and now you can test it out on your existing install as a demo Snap.
This post, How to Try Ubuntu’s New Installer on Your Current Install is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Notes is an open source, and cross-platform note-taking app written in Qt. A new version is available to download. I list what's new and share screenshots.
This post, Open Source Qt ‘Notes’ App Adds Folders, Tags + More is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you're looking for a fast, responsive front-end for MPD, look no further than Ymuse — a new release of which is now available with several improvements.
This post, GTK MPD Client ‘Ymuse’ Adds Album Art & Seek Support is from OMG! Ubuntu!. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.