A new version of the Cinnamon desktop environment has been tagged for release – a sure-fire sign that the Linux Mint 22.1 beta is on the way! As the flagship desktop of Linux Mint, Cinnamon 6.4 will come preinstalled in Linux Mint 22.1 when it’s released at the end of December (though should beta testing reveal issues the date could slip into early 2025). But this post isn’t about Linux Mint 22.1, but Cinnamon. Linux Mint may develop, maintain, and cheerlead the desktop but it can installed on nearly every Linux distribution out there, including Ubuntu (which also has an […]

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A major new update to the powerful open source video converter HandBrake is available. In the 6 months (give or take) since the HandBrake 1.8 release arrived with its GTK4 (but not libadwaita) GUI in tow, the team has furnished this free media conversation software for Windows, macOS, and Linux with a fresh batch of features. HandBrake 1.9 adds support for lossless VP9 encoding. Now, the app already supports converting to VP9, but lossless support means it can convert videos while retaining 100% of the original input quality. The downside to lossless video formats in general is huge file sizes […]

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If you’re an avid user of the Discord Linux app and been annoyed that screen share audio doesn’t work, there’s good news: it now does! The latest version of Discord for Linux at long last includes the option to ‘share system audio’ when setting up a screen share to stream in chats or server channels. Though it works on Windows and macOS, Discord has been silent on when it plans to support screen audio sharing on Linux – so much so it’s been the top feature request on the Discord feedback tracker for years. But this week Linux user Aden […]

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Calibre 7.22 is out — and yes, I’m making extra special effort to not mangle the version number this release as I always seem to insert an extra period in the string whenever I cover the the app! Unwieldy looking though it can seem, the open-source Calibre ebook manager remains unsurpassed in terms of features, tools, and capabilities. Add in the fact it’s cross-platform too, and it’s easy to see why it remains a go-to for avid e-bookworms. Calibre 7.22 builds on recent feature additions, adding a new option to set the position of the control bar when using ‘Read […]

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Firefox fans on Linux will enjoy smaller download sizes and faster decompressing when using the official binary builds from the Mozilla website. The browser maker today announced its switching to the tar.xz format — yes, that xz —to distribute its Linux builds, which uses the more efficient LZMA compression algorithm to deliver smaller downloads and faster extraction times. Most Linux users get Firefox updates as a regular software update from a distro-maintained repo, e.g., a Firefox Snap on Ubuntu, a Firefox DEB on Linux Mint and Pop!_OS, etc. But Mozilla say by switching from BZIP2 (tar,bz2) to XZ (tar.xz) Linux […]

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Indie distro fans rejoice: elementary OS 8.0 is now available to download. Built on the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base and powered by the Linux 6.8 kernel, elementary OS 8 brings a swathe of improvement to both the Pantheon desktop environment, its core apps, and the overall user experience. The elementary team says it focused on several areas for this release, including the creation of a new secure session (using Wayland, but not currently default), improved multitasking with a new dock, and “empowering our diverse community through inclusive design”. Below, I highlight elementary OS 8’s most notable user-facing changes and provide a […]

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Mozilla Firefox 133 was released today, furnished with some new features and UI refinements long-time users are sure to appreciate. In the 4 weeks since Firefox 132 brought us certificate compression, tweaked the way the ‘copy link without site tracking’ surfaces, and flicked the switch on hardware acceleration of SVG primitives in WebRender, Mozilla’s developers added the following: Of these, the tab overview menu option is the one most easily spotted (assuming you’re signed into your Mozilla account and you use the browser on other devices). Elsewhere, Firefox 133.0 also introduces Bounce Tracking Protection to the ‘strict’ mode in Enhanced Tracking Protection […]

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If you were put off trying the Warp terminal app on Ubuntu (or another Linux distro) due to the account and login requirement, there’s good news. The team behind the Rust-based, AI-infused terminal tool has relented on the requirement that users sign-up for and log in with a Warp account before they can run a command. As of this week, anyone can download Warp for for macOS or Linux (it’s coming to Windows soon) and access “all of the core features […] with a preview of more advanced features” without an account, and without logging in. Although, having tried the […]

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Snap is Canonical’s universal package format for Linux. It lets developers build their software once for users on multiple Linux distributions to use. At least, that’s the theory. In reality, few Linux distributions outside of the Ubuntu ecosphere support Snap out of the box. Most carry the underlying Snap daemon package (snapd) in the repositories, so it’s possible for users who want to use snaps, to do so. Linux Mint takes a different approach to that, however. Ubuntu-based it may be, riding the Ubuntu repos and benefitting from the ongoing bug, security, and other patches Canonical’s engineers push out, but […]

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Good things come to those who wait. And for 3D modelling professionals using open-source software, the wait for FreeCAD 1.0 has been a long one – over 22 years in the making! At long last, this free, open-source alternative to expensive engineering software like Autodesk Fusion 360, AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS etc., finally issued its first, formal stable release. A major milestone all told. Not that a lack of 1.0 release had put people off using it prior to now, of course. FreeCAD in already widely used – from professionals and engineering students to 3D printing enthusiasts, both on Linux and other […]

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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 Flatpaks and Flathub (the main source of Flatpak apps) work great on Ubuntu — well, most of the time! There’s just one thing that puts some users off using Flatpak apps on Ubuntu: managing them. GNOME Software is the main graphical way to handle software in most GNOME-based Linux distros. It lets […]

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Here’s something lighthearted for you—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 have upgraded to Ubuntu 24.10 and changed the default wallpaper you will have noticed some of the supplementary (i.e., non-default) desktop backgrounds prominently feature an ‘oriole’ bird. Or what the artist thinks is an oriole bird, as it turns out. Ubuntu’s Bullfinch Bird Bug According to a bug recently filed on Launchpad, home of Ubuntu development, one of the supplemental wallpapers included in […]

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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 Blender 4.2 LTS release earlier this year with “improvements to existing tools, performance enhancements, and the foundations that will shape the years to come.” I’ll recap the key changes in a second, but first I want to highlight a couple of big things that Linux users will be interested to know… Blender 4.3: Big Linux […]

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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. You’re probably wondering what sort of new features Ubuntu 25.04 may offer and the daily builds will get everyone ample chance to find out, first-hand, nice and early. Only, there’s not much new to see — yet. What’s Coming in Ubuntu 25.04? There are plans to ship a new document viewer app in Ubuntu […]

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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 his message to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to announce the release Linus Torvalds notes that the final week of testing delivered “no strange surprises this last week, so we’re sticking to the regularrelease schedule”. But what made it in? Let’s take a look… Linux 6.12: What’s New? Really real-time kernel The headline feature in Linux 6.12 is mainline support for PREEMPT_RT. This patch set dramatically improves the performance of real-time applications […]

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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 currently active tiling layout (and as you may sick of me re-emphasising: you can switch between different layouts ad-hoc, and create and save your own). Windows auto-tile to the best vacant slot in the layout. But what’s ‘best’? Tiling Shell developer Domenico Ferraro says this will be the ‘vacant tile nearest to the […]

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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 of bug fixes and smaller quality enhancements worth knowing about. Although primarily used to listen and manage local music files, Rhythmbox supports network shares, podcasts, radio streaming, and integration with online services like Magnatune and Last.FM. In this release, the app includes several podcast improvements, including better handling of episode […]

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It could be all change for the PDF viewer in the next version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu’s long-time PDF viewer Evince (aka Document Viewer) is comes preinstalled in Ubuntu at present—I can’t recall using a version of Ubuntu that didn’t use it. But next April’s release of Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ may replace Evince with a newer document viewing app called Papers, marking a major change in the distro’s default app set. Papers, a modern GTK4/libadwaita app, is able to ‘view, search and annotate’ documents in a wide range of formats, with PDF handling a primary focus — like Evince. So […]

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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 RISC-V mainboard underscores. Well, there’s now an update on that front. DeepComputing (who make the Ubuntu-powered DC-ROMA II laptop & Pad II tablet) has launched an early access program for its DC-ROMA RISC-V Mainboard for the Framework Laptop 13. The mainboard is also compatible with the  Framework and Cooler Master Case (which […]

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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 Pro (macOS) for free. The “catch” was that it was only free for personal use. Businesses, educators, freelancers, and developers who planned to use the software for so-called ‘commercial’ purposes were asked to be honest and pay for a license. Now, that’s no longer needed. Why is VMware Workstation Pro Now Free? Both VMware Workstation Pro […]

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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 less entertaining: timers. Yes, timers. Timing your pizza in the oven, setting a deadline for a task, dedicating time to a hobby, or obsessively counting down to a date (figurative or romantic), MPRIS Timer does it just as well as anything else – with a twist: it shows your timer using MPRIS. MPRIS stands for ‘Media Player Remote Interfacing Specification’. It is a Freedesktop standard that gives app makers an accessible, consistent API to target […]

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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 Ubuntu added its own approach to accent colours back in 2022. Now aligned with upstream, this new GNOME Shell extension is going to interest Ubuntu users who don’t wan the hassle of handpicking an accent colour to suit their wallpaper – instead, letting their wallpaper pick the accent colour! Auto Accent Colour GNOME Extension […]

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