Mozilla has announced it is ending access to Mozilla Location Service (MLS), which provides accurate, privacy-respecting, and crowdsourced geolocation data. Developers and 3rd-party projects that use MLS to detect a users’ location, such as the freedesktop.org location framework GeoClue, which is used by apps like GNOME Maps and Weather, have only a few months left to continue using the service. New API access keys will not be granted going forward (and pending requests deleted), Mozilla say. In late March, POST data submissions will return 403 responses. Finally, on June 12, all 3rd-party API keys will be removed and MLS data […]

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GNOME 46 is out on March 20 and and the update will be the centrepiece of April’s Ubuntu 24.04 release — but are you wondering what sort of improvements it brings? Well, I gotcha’ covered, innit. In this post I run-through the best GNOME 46 features, changes, and usability tweaks. And there’s a fair bit, from super-charged new search features in the Nautilus file manager to streamlining in the Settings app, support for remote login over RDP, and some small yet approachable buffs to to the way notifications behave. If this round-up leaves you itching to experience the assorted benefits […]

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Mozilla Firefox 124 is now officially available to download. The latest update to the open-source web browser includes a small clutch of improvements. Firefox View can now sort open tabs by recent activity (default) or tab order making it a touch faster to find specific tabs using this feature; and Firefox’s built-in PDF viewer now supports caret browsing mode for improved accessibility. The Firefox snap package for Ubuntu saw a regression in native messaging portal support (used by some web extensions, including the GNOME Shell extensions doohickey) in the Firefox 122 release. It took some time by the bug is […]

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Esteemed adherents of the arts rejoice, as the official Ubuntu 24.04 wallpaper has finally been unveiled! As you no-doubt know, every new Ubuntu release comes with its own unique desktop background and the upcoming release of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” doesn’t abdicate the responsibility. Indeed, the Ubuntu 24.04 default wallpaper tacks firmly traditional, heeding the formula established in 2017: rich purple gradient, elegant geometric/polygonal edge detailing, and the official mascot image royally positioned in the center: As well as the the “colour” default you see pictured above a darker variant is included for those who prefer nocturnal vibes (i.e., […]

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This week I came across Plattenalbum, a modern GTK4/libadwaita frontend for the Music Player Daemon (MPD) built in Python. MPD remains a popular way to make music stored on a server or a computer available on other devices, with capable, user-friendly frontend clients for mobile and desktop devices a crucial element. And Plattenalbum looks a solid choice. Note: this is not a “why you should use MPD” article or a guide to installing MPD on Ubuntu. MPD isn’t an ‘everyone’ solution. If you need/only want to play music files actually on your device then a regular Linux music app such as […]

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The GNOME project today announced the stable release of GNOME 46 “Kathmandu”, the latest update of its hugely popular open-source desktop environment. And what an update it is. I ran through the best GNOME 46 features earlier this week. Suffice to say there’s a lot of improvement across all areas of the user experience. “This six-month effort wouldn’t have been possible without the whole GNOME community, made of contributors and friends from all around the world,” GNOME says of the release. “Developers, designers, documentation writers, usability and accessibility specialists, translators, maintainers, students, system administrators, companies, artists, testers, the local GNOME Asia […]

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A big update to Extension Manager, a popular 3rd-party tool to browse, install, and manage GNOME Shell extensions without the need for a web browser, has been released. If you’re into customising Ubuntu, be it changing the look and layout, adding animated effects, patching in new features and capabilities, or modifying underlying behaviour, you’ll know that GNOME Shell extensions are essential — as is this terrific, user-friendly tool. Extension Manager 0.5 is described as a “Performance & Polish” release by its developer Matt Wakeman, and with an update to libadwaita 1.5, smarter adaptive behaviour, (much needed) search fixes, and other […]

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If you only started using Ubuntu sometime after 2012 then you have my apologies: this article won’t make a whole lot of sense. But if your roots with the distro reach back farther then the following curio might appeal (though that ‘might’ is, I accept, doing a lot of lifting). When I reported on the new IRC-based chat app Linux Mint is building a commenter amusingly referred to IRC adherents as “nostalgia connoisseurs”. In some ways, that label applies to me for writing this post. I am a nostalgic dweeb — sorry/not sorry! 🙈 — and the “golden era” of […]

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App Center, Ubuntu’s Flutter-based replacement for the Ubuntu Software app, has picked up a redesigned app icon in the latest Ubuntu 24.04 daily builds. This isn’t the first icon change that the App Center has received in recent months. An updated build of the software installation frontend rolled out a few months back, and it unintentionally swapped the full-colour, 3D Yaru icon for a flat, 2D, solid orange icon with transparent elements. While a subsequent update fixed the issue some users say they still see the ‘wrong icon’. Now the App Center icon has changed again — though this time […]

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Gamers can look forward to more epic top-tier titles working out-of-the-box in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which is due for release in late April. Following a user suggestion Ubuntu developers have massively increased the distro’s virtual memory mapping limit. This small change should have a big impact on gaming as titles previously reported to crash or exhibit performance issues on Ubuntu due to its vm_max_map_count value being too low will now work. Games like Hogwarts Legacy, Payday 2, Counter-Strike 2, DayZ, and Star Citizen are among those likely to benefit from the value bump as Ubuntu gamers have complained that several […]

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Ubuntu’s long-term support releases just got even longer, with Canonical today announcing they are eligible for up to 12 years of security coverage from initial release. As you know, every Ubuntu LTS release receives 5 years of standard security (and select application) updates out of the gate. This covers packages in the ‘main’ Ubuntu repo. Subscribing to Ubuntu Pro adds a further 5 years of security coverage for packages in both ‘main’ and ‘universe’. Now there’s Legacy Support, a purchasable add-on for Ubuntu Pro customers. This offers an additional 2 years of coverage, bringing the total LTS support period up […]

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Ubuntu 24.04 is switching its default webcam app from Cheese to Snapshot, a modern GTK4/libadwaita camera tool that’s part of the GNOME Core Apps set. Cheese has been part of Ubuntu’s default software lineup since 2010, having first been added in the Ubuntu 9.10 Netbook Remix owing to the rise of diminutive, underpowered laptops that included dark, dire 0.3MP webcams (webcams weren’t super common in cheap laptops prior to this). Indeed, once upon a time people (hi 👋) made heavy use of Cheese for their instant messaging profile pics, and the app included integrated plugins to upload what we’d now […]

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It’s been a little while since the last #UbuntuintheWild spot but this one feels like a fitting return given it’s quite literally in the wild! The wilds of the Eastern Himalayan forests, in fact. Nature documentary Nocturnes, directed and produced by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, follows scientists as they undertake a research trop deep in to these dense, fertile forests to monitor, assess, and learn more about the lives of hawk moths. I’ll admit: on paper, it doesn’t sound like the most engaging film. But the critical reception suggests it’s worth seeking out. It’s praised for lush cinematography, a […]

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8BitDo, makers of retro-themed gaming goods, have unveiled their latest nostalgia-indulging mechanical PC keyboard — and fair warning: it’s way nerdier than their NES-inspired one. The new edition is sure to press all the right buttons for geeks of a certain age as it pays visual homage to one of the most iconic home computers of all time. Yes, the indomitable Commodore 64 — a ‘bread-bin’-sized home computer packed into a keyboard. The 8-bit machine launched in 1982 and was the first affordable and accessible computer for the masses. An immediate hit, the Commodore 64 went on to sell an […]

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Pop!_OS user? You can now upgrade to Linux kernel 6.8 which has begun rolling out as a regular package update. Although the latest version of Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS which currently tops out at Linux 6.5 back ported as a HWE from Ubuntu 23.10, the distros maker, System76, like to bring newer versions of the Linux kernel to its users, more often than Ubuntu does. The ability to get upgrade to new Linux kernel releases within a month or two of their release is a key point of difference to Ubuntu and ensures those using Pop!_OS are […]

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A slew of modernisation are set to ship in next version of Linux Mint, which will be based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. First up, Linux Mint 22 will switch to using Pipewire as its default sound server. Most major Linux distros now use Pipewire. The tech modernises and standardises multimedia processing, is more resource efficient, improves integration between app and hardware, and works with software made for other audio sound systems, e.g., PulseAudio, ALSA, etc. Another significant change on the way involves more timely Linux kernel updates. The current Linux Mint 21.x series is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and […]

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If you were hoping to help test the upcoming release of Ubuntu 24.04 by way of the official beta that was due for release this week, I’ve some bad news: it’s been delayed. However, I reckon you may have expected this. Ubuntu 24.04 beta was scheduled for release on April 4, giving developers, testers, and enthusiasts several weeks to test the new features, find and report issues, check compatibility with and performance on real-world hardware, and all of that hyper-useful stuff. But then a major security issue was announced: an (obfuscated) backdoor was discovered in recent versions of xz compression […]

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A new version of Power Profiles Daemon in Ubuntu 24.04 offers power efficiency improvements for laptop users, but those with modern AMD devices may see the biggest gains. Release notes for the power-profiles-daemon package uploaded to Ubuntu 24.04 this week state that it is now “battery-state aware” and that “some drivers use a more power efficient state when using the balanced profile on battery”. While the power profiles daemon is low-level it enables the Power Mode options shown in the Quick Settings menu: “balanced” (default), “power saver”, and on systems where it’s supported by drivers “performance” — this update tweaks […]

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A handy new translations feature is in the works for Mozilla Firefox that should help speed up translating short snippets of text from one language to another. Firefox 118 introduced a privacy-respecting web page translation feature, and Mozilla devs have continued to improve on it in subsequent releases But sometimes you don’t need or want to translate an entire web page just a portion of text on the page. Plus, given that Firefox translations take place locally to preserve privacy the task of translating every bit of a text visible on a web page can be a little on the […]

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It’s always sad to see a long-standing bit of open-source software put itself out to pasture (a euphemism for going way of the dodo, which is a metaphor becoming extinct or obsolete, which together are needless inclusions for the start a news post). A few weeks back the iconic IRC client Hexchat announced it is no longer under active development, citing a lack of manpower and will. This week the developer of ClamTk announced it is no longer maintained. The seemingly sole dev has chosen to step away for a mix of personal, technical, and modernity-related reasons, adding: – “My […]

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The Ubuntu 24.04 beta is now available to download — one week later than originally planned! Ubuntu 24.04 will become the next long-term support release (LTS) and this beta will provide developers, testers, and enthusiasts time to try it out, track down bugs, and road test its new features. Beta releases are not intended for everyday use (i.e. you’re not supposed to install it as your main OS or on machines you rely on) but, that said, many folks do. The Noble development cycle hasn’t been without its dramas and hiccups. Devs undertook the largest library transition in Ubuntu’s history (to mitigate […]

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