Clapper Video Player for Linux Gets First Update in 2 Years
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 
#News #AppUpdates #Clapper #Mediaplayers
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/clapper-0-6-video-player-released
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS – 20 Changes to Look Out For
Those making the upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 from 22.04 LTS are going to be blown away by the sheer amount of improvements included. Because in addition to benefitting from all of the great new features Ubuntu 24.04 offers compared to Ubuntu 23.10, LTS upgraders benefit from the changes, tweaks, and features that have were added in Ubuntu 22.10, 23.04, and 23.10. Which adds up to a lot. In this post I run-through 20 of the most important, noticeable, and impactful changes Ubuntu 24.04 LTS offers compared to the previous LTS — consider this an LTS to LTS feature spotting guide,
#News #Noble #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/ubuntu-24-04-lts-20-changes-to-look-out-for
Official Flathub Website Just Got a Fab Revamp
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 makeover and adds a number of on-page features that will 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. — unless they regularly read sites like mine, heh 😉. You can’t fail the spot the changes, either. The Flathub homepage is now topped by a banner slider (updated weekly) that promotes 5 apps, and introduces
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/flathub-website-new-look
Firefox Nightly is Now Available for Linux on ARM64
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
#News #Arm #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/firefox-nightly-is-now-available-for-linux-on-arm64
Audacity 3.5 Released with Cloud Saves, Beat Detection + More
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 —
#News #AppUpdates #Audacity
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/audacity-3-5-released-with-cloud-saves-beat-detection-more
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Supports HEIF/HEIC Images OOTB
Among the many new features in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is out-of-the-box support for HEIF/HEIC images. Anyone using Ubuntu 24.04 won’t have to manually install any extra packages to be able to see HEIF/HEIC thumbnails previews in the Nautilus file manager or open HEIF/HEIC files in the default Eye of GNOME image viewer app. While HEIF (which stands for High Efficiency Image File Format) isn’t a super common web image format it is now widely used on smartphones. Both Apple iPhone & newer Samsung devices save to this format for photo taken with the stock camera app. Which makes this small
#News #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/ubuntu-now-supports-heif-images
Mozilla Firefox 125 Released with Added Conveniences
You know the drill by now: a new month rolls around, and a new version of the inimitable Mozilla Firefox rolls off the release server for us all to enjoy. And bang on cue, Firefox 125 has arrived. The big-ticket new feature in this update is URL paste suggestions: Mozilla says this feature “provides a convenient way for users to quickly visit URLs copied to the clipboard in the address bar of Firefox.” How does it work? If you copy a URL to the system clipboard and then focus the URL bar (in Firefox 125, that is) you will see
#News #AppUpdates #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/mozilla-firefox-125-released
APT 3.0 Adds Colours, Columns, and More
I think most of us are familiar with the way that APT, the package management tool underpinning Ubuntu and all other Debian-based Linux distributions, looks and behaves. But some (much needed) visual changes are coming in the next major stable release, APT 3.0 — and they look great. Oh come now; don’t pretend you’re not excited by fancier looking APT print outs, my friend 🤭. One of the (many) things I love about Fedora is how clean, ordered, and legible DNF printouts are — no, i’m not sure “printout” is the right term for what I mean but saying it
#News #Apt #Ubuntu24_10
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/apt-3-0-colours-columns-new-ui
Blanket (Ambient Sounds App for Linux) Gets Calming New Look
If you want to relax or ned to concentrate on a task at your computer then listening to ambient sounds can help — and the best Linux app for this task just got a big update! Blanket is a free, open-source GTK4/libadwaita app that can play a variety of ambient sounds ranging from nature sounds (rain fall, wind, waves, birds, etc) to environmental buzz (coffee shop, city, train, etc). You can play just one sound or create a mix of multiple sounds and adjust the volume level for each independently. If you create a soundscape you like you are able
#News #AppUpdates #Blanket
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/blanket-ambient-noise-app-update-new-ui
Ubuntu 24.04 Beta Released, This is What’s New
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
#News #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/ubuntu-24-04-beta-released
ClamTK is No Longer Maintained
It’s always sad to hear 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 for dying out). A few weeks back iconic IRC client HexChat announced it was no longer under active development. This week the developer of ClamTk announced the app is longer maintained. Its (seemingly sole) dev has chosen to step away for a mix of personal, technical, and modernity-related reasons, adding: – “My goals were to give back to Linux, which gave me a lot, and to get better at programming. I probably
#News #Antivirus #Clamav #Graveyard
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/clamtk-is-no-longer-maintained
Firefox Getting ‘Translate Selected Text’ Feature – How to Try It
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 website but a snippet of text on the page. And given that Firefox translations take place locally to preserve privacy the process of translating every bit of a text on a web page is a little on the slow side (on
#News #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/firefox-translate-selected-text-feature
Ubuntu 24.04 Improves Power Efficiency on Laptops
The version of Power Profiles Daemon shipping in Ubuntu 24.04 delivers a raft of power efficiency improvements for all laptop users, but those with 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 “battery-state aware” and that “some drivers use a more power efficient state when using the balanced profile on battery”. The power profiles daemon is low-level but it’s what enable the “power profile” modes in the Quick Settings menu: “balanced” (default), “power saver”, and “performance” (on systems where it’s supported by drivers) — this
#News #Amd #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/ubuntu-24-04-battery-life-improvements
Ubuntu 24.04 Beta Delayed Due to Security Issue
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 think you may have been expecting this. Ubuntu 24.04 beta was scheduled for release on April 4, giving developers, testers, and enthusiasts plenty of time to try out the newest features, find and report issues, check compatibility with real-world hardware, and all of that useful stuff. But owing to a recent security issue — a backdoor was uncovered in recent versions of xz compression library
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/ubuntu-24-04-beta-delayed
Linux Mint 22 Adopts PipeWire, New Linux Kernel Cadence
The next version of Linux Mint is set to include a number of modernisations over earlier versions. First up, Linux Mint 22 will ship with 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 apps and hardware, and supports software made for audio sound systems like PulseAudio and ALSA. Another significant change involves Linux kernel updates. Linux Mint Goes All-In on HWE The Linux Mint 21.x series is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and uses the “GA” kernel (the one Ubuntu 22.04
#News #LinuxMint
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/linux-mint-22-adopts-pipewire-hwe-kernels
8BitDo’s Commodore 64 Mechanical Keyboard Even Has a Joystick
I’m gonna geek out hard here as 8BitDo, makers of retro-themed gaming goods, have unveiled their latest mechanical PC keyboard — and it’s even nerdier than their first, NES-inspired one. I never got around the buying the Famicom/NES version, though reviews of it are fairly positive (not universally but given it’s a mechanical keyboard aimed at gamers rather than knuckle-cracking, coffee-swigging all-night programmers, and it’s relatively affordable, that’s a given). Anyway, I digress. The new edition will pressing all the right keys for geeks of a certain age as it pays visual homage to the indomitable Commodore 64 — a
#News #8Bitdo #Hardware #Keyboards #RetroGaming
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/8bitdo-commodore-64-keyboard-is-geektastic
Ubuntu in the Wild: Distro Glimpsed in Nature Film ‘Nocturnes’
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
#News #Ubuntuinthewild #Ubuntuontv
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/nocturnes-moth-documentary-ubuntu
Ubuntu 24.04 Takes Cheese Off the Menu
Ubuntu is switching its default webcam app from Cheese to Snapshot, which debuted as part of the GNOME Core app lineup in GNOME 45. Snapshot Cheese has been part of Ubuntu’s default software set since 2010, first added in Ubuntu 9.10 Netbook Remix fuelled by rise of netbooks and their dim n’ dire 0.3MP webcams. Once upon a time people (hi 👋) made heavy use of Cheese for instant messaging profile pics, and the app included integrated plugins to upload photos to sites like Flickr. While Cheese remains a fun tool the webcam “novelty” factor has long-since worn off. When
#News #Cheese #PhotographyTools #Snapshot #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/ubuntu-24-04-swaps-cheese-snapshot-webcam-app
Canonical Extends LTS Support to 12 Years
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 for packages in the ‘main’ Ubuntu repo, while subscribing to Ubuntu Pro adds a further 5 years of security coverage for packages in the ‘main’ and ‘universe’ repos. But 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 window up to 12
#News #Canonical #UbuntuPro
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/03/ubuntu-lts-12-years-legacy-support
Ubuntu 24.04 Makes Tiny Tweak to Improve Gaming
Gamers can look forward to more epic top-tier titles working in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Following a user suggestion, Ubuntu developers have decided to increase the distro’s virtual memory mapping limit. The change will mean games previously reported to crash or exhibit performance issues when run on Ubuntu due to the vm_max_map_count value being low now run better. Games such as Hogwarts Legacy, Payday 2, Counter-Strike 2, DayZ, and Star Citizen are among those which benefit from the value bump — a few of this reportedly refuse to run at all in current versions of Ubuntu. In fact, any game or
#News #Gaming #Steam #Ubuntu24_04Lts
