Flatpak is no longer just a promising format whose potential lay in the far future – it’s already the go-to way for developers to package and distribute their software on Linux, including to those of us using Ubuntu. While Ubuntu has no plans to support Flatpak officially, both F … | Continue reading
Here’s something a little lighthearted—unless you’re pedantic about ornithology, in which case you won’t be so chirpy: it seems a Bullfinch found its way into Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole’. Did someone leave a window open?! If you upgraded to Ubuntu 24.10 and changed the default … | Continue reading
Feeling creative? After you’ve scanned out slew of changes shipping in the new Blender 4.3 release, you’ll find it hard not to! Blender 4.3 is the latest stable release of the phenomenally powerful open-source 3D modelling software. Its creators say the update builds on the Blend … | Continue reading
A sure-fire way to tell that development has moved up a gear: Ubuntu 25.04 daily builds are now available to download. Development formally got underway on Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ last month, with the final stable release of Ubuntu 25.04 arriving on Thursday April 17, 2025. … | Continue reading
Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux kernel 6.12, and an eclectic assortment of changes contained within make it one of the most biggest kernel releases for a while. In terms of features, I mean. I didn’t sit bean-counting the code byte-by-byte! In his message to the … | Continue reading
I’d promise to shut up about the Tiling Shell GNOME Shell extension but I can’t because new features are coming thick and fast — the latest: support for automatic tiling. Yes, this nifty workflow wonder is finally able to automatically tile newly opened windows based on the curre … | Continue reading
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 o … | Continue reading
Ubuntu 25.04 plans to include a new default PDF viewer app. Evince (aka Document Viewer) is the PDF app preinstalled in Ubuntu at present, but the plan is for next April’s release of Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ to ship with a different app, called Papers. Heard of Papers? It’s a … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 rather more different: timers. Yes, timers. Timing your pizza in the oven, setting a deadline for task completion, dedicated time to a hob … | Continue reading
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 Ubun … | Continue reading
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 7.2.1 … | Continue reading
GNOME 47 ‘Denver’ proved a decent update to the GNOME desktop, delivering a hearty dose of new features, UI refinements, and app improvements. So as one release gets pushed out the door, work on the next begins. GNOME 48 ‘Bengaluru‘ (named after the host city of the GNOME Asia Su … | Continue reading
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 HAT … | Continue reading
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. But the latest release, Burn My Windows v44, rolling out on the GNOME Extensions right now … | Continue reading
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 divisio … | Continue reading
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 set – but the wait will soon be over. Today, a GIMP 3.0 release candidate was made available to download. Th … | Continue reading
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 prede … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 earli … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 n … | Continue reading
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 thr … | Continue reading
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 deserve … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
Music makers, podcast producers, and amateur audio enthusiasts alike will be pleased to hear a new version of Audacity is out – and it fixes a lot of bugs. Audacity 3.7.0 marks a new series of maintenance releases which will fix flaws, balm bugs, and nix niggles in the current ed … | Continue reading
Forget Amazon’s recent Kindle refresh, the most exciting e-ink device around is the PineNote from prolific open-source hardware makers Pine64. I reported last month that Pine64 had confirmed a new PineNote production run, the first in several years, now that it has a solid Debian … | Continue reading
Being a Linux nerd I rarely go outside —that’s a joke— but knowing what the weather is doing beyond my basement walls —still a joke— is useful – if only because it usually gives me an excuse to stay at my desk compiling my own kernel —not a joke. Scores of Linux weather apps, wid … | Continue reading
A big update to ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, a free, open-source office suite for Windows, macOS, and Linux is available to download. ONLYOFFICE 8.2 offers a clutch of new features, several performance gains, and a miscellany of smaller enhancements across the full suite, which is … | Continue reading
Mozilla Firefox 132 is available to download today, arriving a couple of weeks ahead of the browser’s big 20th anniversary milestone. But anyone hoping Firefox 132 would prove itself a veritable birthday piñata, fit to burst with a flurry of new features and eye-catching changes … | Continue reading
I’m a fan of the Tiling Shell GNOME Shell extension because it’s both good at what it does, but good at not being one-size-fits-all: users can tile window using a mouse and drop zones, with keyboard shortcuts, or with both – options for everyone. And some extra options are on off … | Continue reading
Ever feel a pang of a nostalgia for the way web browsers used to look, but don’t fancy the hiccups and hassle of trying to run an old browser on a modern OS? Honestly? You probably don’t, but after checking out what the Geckium project can do, you might! Before I continue let sta … | Continue reading
Vivaldi 7.0 is out, and the makers describe it as not merely an update but ‘a new Vivaldi’ entirely. Those familiar with the browser will instantly see why, as Vivaldi finally gets an overdue UI redesign: there’s a new theme, pill-shaped floating tabs, and all-new in-app icons. O … | Continue reading
One of the best things about the Raspberry Pi 5 (other than the performance boost over its predecessor) is how much simpler it is to add an SSD. And if you’re running a full desktop OS like Ubuntu you should use an SSD: startup times are blazingly fast, and the I/O performance bl … | Continue reading
Open source ebook manager Calibre has a new release out. Calibre 7.2.0 ships with a brand new PDF input engine (used to convert PDF files into other ebook formats, such as EPUB or MOBI). It’s now able to handle “automatic detection of headers and footers based on document analysi … | Continue reading
Remember Clementine music player? Well, it appears to be back – some 8 years after its last stable release. If Clementine feels like it’s slipped out of public consciousness it’s understandable: the last stable release was in 2016 (v1.3.1). Yet behind the scenes development conti … | Continue reading
Canonical has put the official Linux Intel NPU driver on the Snap Store. The new Intel NPU Driver snap “bundles many components […] including device firmware, a user space driver and compiler, and an application to validate the user mode driver and compiler”. Or to put it another … | Continue reading
Oracle has released the second maintenance update for the latest VirtualBox 7.1 series. VirtualBox 7.1.4 includes a small set of improvements, bug fixes, and stability enhancements to this open-source, cross-platform virtualisation tool, though new major new features are included … | Continue reading
Ubuntu 24.10 may have only just been released, but development on the next version is getting underway and the codename for Ubuntu 25.04 revealed. Since codenames are alphabetical (as of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS; restarted at ‘A’ with 17.10) it means the Ubuntu 25.04 codename will start w … | Continue reading
When it comes to open-source vector graphics software there’s perhaps nothing else as well known or as well made for the task than Inkscape – and a brand new version is now released. Inkscape 1.4 adds a crop of new features and improves accessibility buffs, with bug fixes, code c … | Continue reading
With the latest release stacked with new features, you may be looking to upgrade to Ubuntu 24.10 from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS but wondering exactly how. “I just wait for Ubuntu to tell me, right?” – Er, no. As Ubuntu 24.04 is a long-term support (LTS) release it will not ask you if you … | Continue reading
GNOME Shell shows now playing info in the notification shade, out of view but there when you want to check in. Most users like this approach, but perhaps you don’t? Personally, I do like seeing media info (album art, artist name, track title) in the top bar. If I listen to a play … | Continue reading
KDE neon users can now upgrade to rebase their systems on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. For those unfamiliar with it, KDE neon is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that is something of a reference platform for KDE Plasma. It’s available in User, Testing, Unstable, and Developer editions. KD … | Continue reading
Ubuntu 24.10 is now available for download after six months of dedicated development. The latest release offers plenty of changes and new features, including the latest GNOME 47 release, more preinstalled tools for developers, and better signalling of background snap app updates. … | Continue reading
If you’re using Canonical’s Steam snap to game on Ubuntu you may be pleased to hear that a number appreciable performance improvements have begun to filter out. Valve recommend Ubuntu users stick to the official Steam DEB for the best experience but plenty of Ubuntu users prefer … | Continue reading
A new major update to the KDE Plasma desktop has been released, and it’s jam-packed with new features, enhancements, and performance-focused improvements. Serving as the third release in the new 6.x series, KDE Plasma 6.2 builds on the foundations introduced in earlier this year … | Continue reading
Ardour is one of the most popular and powerful open-source digital audio workstations (DAW) around, and a major new update was recently made available. Now, I can’t profess to be some kind of music-making maestro, though I did spend much of my late teens face-first in FL Studio ( … | Continue reading