During the past 18 months or so I routinely get messages from readers to tell me that the Disqus comments section has stopped loading in Firefox, or asking why the comments section keeps being enabled/disabled. This shouldn’t the case; comments are auto-enabled for all articles I publish. If comments are manually disabled on an article (which happens, albeit rarely) you can tell as a comment count will not appear in the ‘meta’ area beneath the headline on the article page (as the comment count is an anchor link to the comments section). So what’s causing Disqus comments to vanish under […]

You're reading Disqus Comments Not Loading? It’s Not Me Bro, It’s Firefox, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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 that fine-tune, fix-up, and finesse performance, gameplay, and stability. But it’s been a while since any major new features were put 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 […]

You're reading SuperTuxKart 1.5 Gears Up For Release, v2.0 in the Works, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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. To use it you will need to be […]

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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. […]

You're reading Amarok 3.0 Released, Ported to Qt5/KDE Frameworks 5, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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 […]

You're reading Why You Shouldn’t Upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Yet, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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 […]

You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 Official Flavours Available to Download, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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 […]

You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 LTS: 20 Major Changes to Look Out For, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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 — […]

You're reading Audacity 3.5 Released with Cloud Saves, Beat Detection + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.