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 pleased to hear Mozilla Firefox 115 supports hardware video decoding by default. Most devices with Intel graphics hardware benefit from this feature, … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 abo … | Continue reading
Next time you stop by the Snapcraft website you’ll notice it has a fresh new look. 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, includi … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 too … | Continue reading
A quick heads-up to any content computer users out there still riding Ubuntu 22.10 — support for this release ends on July 20, 2023. For those without a calendar to gawp at, that’s less than a month way away at the time of writing. But don’t panic. You can upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 … | Continue reading
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 t … | Continue reading
This month Canonical confirmed its plan to launch an all-snap Ubuntu desktop image next April — but you don’t have to wait until then to start playing with it. If you scoot along to the Ubuntu Core Desktop GitHub page, check out the actions tab, find a (completed) build job, then … | Continue reading
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 U … | Continue reading
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 offi … | Continue reading
Do you want to reset the Ubuntu Dock to its default settings, with the same app shortcuts placed on it as if you had just installed Ubuntu? If so, you can get back to a ‘fresh install feeling’ using a terminal command. There are numerous ways to customise the Ubuntu Dock, includi … | Continue reading
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 sid … | Continue reading
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 amo … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 appro … | Continue reading
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. Debia … | Continue reading
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 T … | Continue reading
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. Th … | Continue reading
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 ad … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 in … | Continue reading
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 yea … | Continue reading
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, … | Continue reading
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 an … | Continue reading
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 p … | Continue reading
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