GNOME 46: The Best New Features

GNOME 46 is released on March 20 and the update will be at the heart of next month’s Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release — wondering what kind of improvements is brings? Well, I gotcha’ covered, innit. In this post I run-through the best GNOME 46 features, changes, and usability enhancements. And there’s a fair bit, including super-charged search features in the Nautilus file manager, streamlining to the Settings app, support for remote login over RDP, and some small but sensible buffs to GNOME Shell notifications. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will ship with GNOME 46 by default, so if after reading this round-up :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/gnome-

Mozilla Drops Axe on its Privacy-Friendly Location Service

Mozilla has announced it is retiring its Mozilla Location Service (MLS), which provides accurate and privacy-respecting geolocation data. Developers and third-party projects currently use MLS to provide location data, such as FreeDesktop location framework GeoClue, leveraged by apps like GNOME’s Maps and Weather, have only a few months left to use it. We knew cuts were coming from the new CEO but the axe has fallen ruthlessly quick on this! 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, :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/mozill

KDE Plasma 6.0.2 Update Delivers More Fixes

The second bug-fix update to KDE Plasma 6 is now available, arriving just over a week after the first one rolled out. KDE Plasma 6.0.2 brings a bunch of band-aids to resolves crashes, quirks, and other odd-ball behaviours reported by users since the KDE Plasma 6.0 stable release landed at the end of February. Among the more notable (read: things that sound annoying to me) issues addressed through this KDE Plasma 6.0.2 update are the following: Check the official change-log for a comprehensive overview of everything altered between v6.0.1 and this v6.0.2 release. Users of Ubuntu-based KDE neon — the :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/kde-pl

Proton Mail’s New Desktop App is Available for Linux

Proton Mail has released a brand new desktop app for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The app means subscribers to the privacy-focused mail service no longer need to use a web browser to read, send, and manage their mail. For privacy-conscious folks, Proton needs little introduction. Formed by a group of scientists and engineers who met working at CERN in 2014, the company has grown to provide a wide range of secure, privacy-focused online services, including encrypted email, VPN, and cloud storage. On the Proton blog the company explains the rationale behind freeing their webmail service from the confines of a web :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/proton

VLC Passes 5 Billion Downloads, Teases Big Changes in Next Release

VLC media player has now been downloaded over 5 billion times across desktop and mobile devices, with the most recent release clocking up an impressive 335 million downloads alone! Jean-Baptiste Kempf, president of VideoLAN, the non-profit company who develop VLC, shared this monumental milestone in a natter with Lowpass newsletter editor Janko Roettgers. Kempf also shared some tantalising teases on what we should expect to find in VLC 4.0, when it finally ships. Also, if you’re interested, you can see VLC download statistics on the video player’s official website. The app passed 3 billion downloads in 2019. VLC was first :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/vlc-hi

Linux Kernel 6.8 Released, This is What’s New

After a solid couple of months of development the Linux 6.8 kernel has been officially released. This kernel is of particular note to Ubuntu users as it’s the version selected to ship in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS – the GA kernel and thereby supported for the duration of the release. Announcing the release of the latest Linux kernel on the official Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) Linux founder Linus Torvalds says: “This is not the historically big release that 6.7 was – we seem to be back to a fairly average release size for the last few year,” he writes. “You :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/linux-

How to Run Any App in Picture in Picture Mode in Ubuntu

A new GNOME Shell extension lets you turn any app in to a picture-in-picture window on Ubuntu. You’re probably already familiar with picture-in-picture mode (PiP) through your web browser. The likes of Mozilla Firefox and Chrome let you to “pop-out” video playing on web pages to view as a thumbnail-size window that floats over other apps, and resize and reposition the PiP window. PiP in browsers only works for online video, which is useful if want to watch a video on YouTube or another supported site while you work in a different tab or app (I use the feature to :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/how-to

Zorin OS 17.1 Released, Debuts New Education Edition

A new version of Zorin OS is available for download. Zorin OS 17.1, which is based on Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS, brings a wealth of improvements to its (nifty) Windows app support, as well as a new Education Edition that “pairs the latest improvements to Zorin OS with educational software that makes learning better and more impactful”. The new Wine 9.0 release comes paired with the Bottles utility in Zorin OS 17.1 in an effort to makes its already user-friendly Windows app support even more powerful. “We’ve expanded our built-in database to detect installer files for popular Windows apps and games. :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/zorin-

Linux Mint is Building a New Desktop Chat App

A new IRC client (but don’t call it an IRC client) is being developed by Linux Mint. The Ubuntu-based distro currently includes Hexchat in its default software selection. IRC isn’t as trendy as Discord or Telegram but it a free, open standard that no one-entity controls, is relatively low-bandwidth, interoperable, and efficient. But as I reported in February: Hexchat is no more. However, Hexchat ‘quitting the chat’ leaves —I so badly want to say leafs— Linux Mint with a dilemma and an opportunity. The dilemma being: “should we continue shipping an IRC client?” and the opportunity being: “could we replace :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/linux-

Classic Google Chrome Theme for Mozilla Firefox ESR

A new open-source nostalgia project lets you turn back time in web browser aesthetics. Silverfox is a custom theme for Mozilla Firefox ESR that recreates the look of Google Chrome in its early days. We’re talking trapezoid tabs, parallelogram new tab button, pared back speed dial, and a custom-made hamburger menu (with option to use classic wrench icon). “Browsers age, good design doesn’t”, say the developers of the theme. This theme is real labour of love and, speaking as someone who blogged obsessively about those early days of Google Chrome/ium on Linux, trying this out took me on a real :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/silver

How to Mirror Your iPhone’s screen on Ubuntu Desktop

Want to mirror your iPhone screen on your Ubuntu desktop? There’s a free, open-source app you can install from the Ubuntu repos to do exactly that. If you’re looking to mirror your iPhone or iPad to Ubuntu UxPlay is the easy way to do it — and it’s free, open-source software The app is called UxPlay and once it’s installed you can quickly share your iPhone or iPad screen to Ubuntu (with audio) — and you don’t need to install an app on your Apple device to use it. Whatever shows on your Apple device screen is streamed to your :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/how-to

Use Varia Download Manager? Install the Official Browser Extension

Avid users of Varia, a modern download manager for Linux desktops, may want to check out official browser extensions. By installing the official Varia browser extension in Google Chrome/Chromium or Mozilla Firefox you no longer have to copy and paste download links from the browser into the app: just click an icon to punt the link to the app directly, where it can then download. “When the extension is enabled, it will route all started downloads to Varia. In order to route the downloads to Varia, make sure to flip the switch in the extension, and make sure Varia is :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/varia-

Canonical Has Given Launchpad’s Homepage a Facelift

Next time you stop by Launchpad.net you’ll notice it has a new look. Canonical’s designers have given Launchpad’s landing page a lithe new look that allows text to breathe and is more in-keeping with Canonical’s other websites. It’s the first major redesign to the project hosting site since 2016, and (to save you a visit) this is what the new homepage looks like: Launched in 2004, Launchpad serves as the linchpin in Ubuntu development. It’s the hub through which developers collaborate, commit code, plan releases, file bugs, add translations, and tackle other tasks related to thrashing out a new release. :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/canoni

The Odd-Looking ‘App Center’ Icon in Ubuntu 23.10 is Being Fixed

About a week ago I noticed the icon for App Center (the Flutter-based software store-front that replaced Ubuntu Software in 23.10) had changed — and not for the better! At first I assumed it was a snafu caused by me. See, I only noticed the change when I was playing around with scaling options (I was seeing whether 200% scaling on my 2K laptop screen was as bad as I remembered, or if it was just me being a fop for fractional scaling). Anyway, it wasn’t a “me” thing. As App Center is a snap (snap-store ) it gets updated :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/ubuntu

It’s Game Over for Solitaire, Soduku et al in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Ubuntu developers have decided to drop games from the default installation image. Although Ubuntu 23.10 defaults to a minimal install with only core software essentials like a terminal and web browser, users are able to opt for a “full installation” which preinstalls more software, including a handful of basic GNOME games. In Ubuntu 23.10 the following four games are included: But in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS none are. For the Noble Numbat those games are no longer included in the full installation or present in the ISO (which includes all of the software used in a full install so that people :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/ubuntu

KDE Plasma 6.0 Has Arrived, This is What’s New

KDE Plasma 6 has arrived. The first stable release in an all-new series of the phenomenally popular Linux desktop environment is available to download. KDE Plasma 6 improves security, performance, usability, and hardware support Naturally, a major milestone such as this includes scores of changes, enhancements, and new features, the best of which I look at in this post. But I want to touch on the “intangible” changes too as KDE Plasma 6.0 upgrades its underlying application framework, Qt, to a major new version, and fully embraces the Wayland display server. “These under-the-hood upgrades benefit Plasma’s security, efficiency, and performance, :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/kde-pl

This GNOME Extension Shows AirPods Battery Levels in Ubuntu

Do you use Apple AirPods or Beats wireless headphones with Ubuntu (or any Linux distribution using GNOME Shell) and want to be able to check battery levels on your desktop? Well, now you can! The new Airpod Battery Monitor GNOME Shell extension makes it easy to check the battery levels of your AirPods or Beats bluetooth headsets. Don’t See AirPods Battery Levels in Ubuntu? Apple’s wireless audio devices (including Beats, an Apple subsidiary) work “out of the box” in Ubuntu and other Linux distros) using the regular Bluetooth stack you won’t see any indication of their battery level. Not seeing :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/see-ai

Warp, Rust-Based Terminal with AI, is Now Available on Linux

Linux developers have a new toy to play with, Warp. Warp is a closed-source terminal emulator built using the Rust programming language. It offers hardware acceleration, integrated AI, collaborative capabilities, and adopts a “blocks” based approach to commands that help set it apart from traditional terminal tools. Plus, when it comes to text input Warp functions more like an IDE or text editor, offering filtering and selections, cursor positioning (including multiple cursors), auto-complete, syntax highlighting, and a fair bit more. Previously a Mac-only app, Warp is now available for Linux distributions, including Ubuntu. At launch, Warp’s Linux app already offers :sys_more_orange:
/Ml

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/warp-t

CrossOver 24 Released with UI Buffs, Office 365 Installer Fixes

A new version of CrossOver is available that builds out on last month’s Wine 9.0 release. Created by CodeWeavers, a major contributor to Wine’s ongoing development, CrossOver is a commercial build of Wine with extra “goodies” included that make running Windows games and apps on Linux, Chrome OS and macOS that little bit sweeter. CrossOver 24 is the latest release, and the first based on Wine 9.0 (a huge release with over 7,000 changes). It also ship with Wine Mono 8.1.0, vkd3d 1.10, and MoltenVK 1.2.5 to ensure solid performance across multiple different operating systems. Additionally, CodeWeavers devs spent some :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/crosso

Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS is Available to Download

A new point release of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is available to download. Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS is the fourth point release and results in a brand-new installation image (ISO) that integrates all of the security patches, bug fixes, and software updates released since last August’s Ubuntu 22.04.3 image. Additionally, Ubuntu 22.04.4 ships atop a new hardware enablement stack (HWE) composed of Linux kernel 6.5 (bringing support for newer hardware, file system tweaks, and security updates) and Mesa 23.2.1 (offering improved graphics support). Package updates include Thunderbird 115.6, and Mozilla Firefox 122 (which will auto-update to the most recent release at the :sys_more_orange:

:sys_omgubuntu: omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/ubuntu

Show older
小森林

每个人都有属于自己的一片森林,也许我们从来不曾走过,但它一直在那里,总会在那里。迷失的人迷失了,相逢的人会再相逢。愿这里,成为属于你的小森林。