Join me in an imaginary drum roll as I reveal the date and location of the next Ubuntu Summit. This year Riga in Lativa will host this distro’s next in-person soirée, from November 3rd to November 5th at the The Radisson Blu Latvija Hotel. Interestingly, the Ubuntu Summit 2023 is … | Continue reading
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 sw … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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, mysel … | Continue reading
It seems Google Chrome is getting a minor makeover later this year, and if you’re riding the browser’s development channel you can opt-in to try the new look out. I’ll get to the “how to” part of that in a moment. First I ought to show you a few screenshots of what it is you’ll b … | Continue reading
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 ap … | Continue reading
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. How … | Continue reading
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 nam … | Continue reading
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 co … | Continue reading
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 the Moksha window manager by default. It’s … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
A new version of Lutris, the open-source game launcher for Linux, is available to download. For those not acquainted with it, Lutris makes it easier to install, launch, and play games on Linux by integrating multiple gaming platforms, including Steam, GOG, and Humble Bundle (amon … | Continue reading
The way PPAs are managed is changing in Ubuntu 23.10. A new version of the software-properties package is rolling out to Mantic Minotaur daily builds. The update makes brings a “significant change” to the way personal package archives (better known as PPAs) are managed on Ubuntu … | Continue reading
When System76 announced plans to create its own desktop environment I’ll admit I did wonder if they could pull it off. It’s not that I doubt the company’s software development prowess or engineering nous (the stellar success of Pop!_OS with its homegrown embellishments prove they … | Continue reading
Here’s a (hopefully toy) cat to toss amongst the pigeons – Microsoft is rumoured to be eyeing up a deal that would make Bing the default search engine in Mozilla Firefox. The rumour, by way of The Information, claims senior Microsoft execs hope to seal a deal with Mozilla to make … | Continue reading
Ubuntu 23.04 is now officially available for StarFive’s VisionFive 2, a powerful RISC-V single-board computer. Canonical worked with StarFive’s engineering team to create an optimised version of the latest Ubuntu release for use on the VisionFive 2. This single-board computer (SB … | Continue reading
If you run Ubuntu on a laptop or PC with 7th-generation Intel chips or later and you’re a fan of the Chromium browser, Canonical has something for you. It has partnered with Intel to create a Chromium snap that boasts hardware accelerated video decoding and encoding. Thus, the be … | Continue reading
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 the kind of singular upsells that might convince someone to … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 o … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 mail … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
Fancy talking to ChatGPT from your Linux desktop without needing 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 an … | Continue reading
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 betwee … | Continue reading
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 Qu … | Continue reading
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 g … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
If you’ve made 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 an intentional shift in policy (also taken in Ubuntu’s upstream, Debian) to av … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 c … | Continue reading
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 (tange … | Continue reading
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 sha … | Continue reading
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 bu … | Continue reading
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 reading
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 t … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 fiel … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 awa … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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? You just … | Continue reading
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 c … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading