SoftMaker FreeOffice 2024 Released
A new version of FreeOffice has been released. FreeOffice 2024 is a free (as in beer) version based on SoftMaker Office 2024, a commercial, cross-platform office suite. Any users of SoftMaker Office reading this needn’t feel short-changed: the free version comes with fewer features. The 3 core components in FreeOffice (TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations) are also included in SoftMaker Office, and SoftMaker Office NX (a newer, subscription-based offering with AI integrations) but not all features are shared between them. However, all of the essentials one would need are present. What’s missing are the gimmicky end of things, e.g., AI/ML writing/translation, 
#News #AppUpdates #Freeoffice #Office&ProductivityApps
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/softmaker-freeoffice-2024-released
COSMIC Desktop Logo Unveiled, Alpha Release Due in July
System76’s COSMIC desktop environment (ecosystem?) is shaping up to be something truly out of this world, combining modern design with intuitive navigation, embracing customisation, and taking full advantage of the benefits that being built in Rust brings. But every project needs branding. Fluff to a few, but an important signpost to most. Good branding helps encapsulate and convey the ideals and tone of a project, and lend it a unique identity people can instantly recognise and come to love. Today, COSMIC got its own. Behold: the official COSMIC logo, work mark, slogan, and colours: Explaining the idea behind the branding
#News #CosmicDe #DesktopEnvironments #Rust #System76
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/cosmic-desktop-logo-and-alpha-release-date
Open-Source Video Editor Gets ‘Game-Changer’ Update
A new version of open-source video editor OpenShot is available to download. OpenShot 3.2 is the first update to the app since early last year, and the editor’s chief developer, Jonathan Thomas, describes this release as a “game-changer with new themes, improved features, and enhanced performance”. Among the change and new features in OpenShot 3.2: A slew of more generalised improvements, ranging from a ‘stable’ undo/redo experience, and UI tweaks to support high-dpi displays, through to a more reliable tracker/object detection effect (a really compelling features) are present. Naturally, lots and lots of bug fixes are included too for all supported
#News #AppUpdates #Openshot #QtApps #VideoEditors
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/openshot-3-2-linux-video-editor-features
Linux Mint 22 Beta Imminent as ISO Enters Testing
As the Cinnamon 6.2 release indicated, the Linux Mint 22 release is getting close. But, before a stable release can be made, there needs to be a beta. Oh, sorry—don’t get excited; a Linux Mint 22 Beta isn’t available to download just yet! But it seems one will be along very soon. Yesterday, a Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon Edition ISO appeared on the Linux Mint ISO tracker, tagged as ‘in testing’ (internal testing). This suggests a public beta release is imminent, though not until ISOs for the MATE and Xfce editions are also added and tested. When the ISO moves
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/linux-mint-22-beta-imminent-as-iso-enters-testing
Celluloid Media Player Sees First Update This Year
A new version of Celluloid, an open-source media player for Linux, has been released. Celluloid (originally called GNOME MPV, albeit many moons ago) is an MPV-based media player able to leverage many of MPV’s ‘powerful playback capabilities’, but wrapped up within a more modern-looking GUI. The new Celluloid 0.27 releases serves as the the first major update to the app this year. It introduces a number of small changes aimed at improving performance, usability, and the overall appearance. New keyboard shortcuts have been added: Other changes: – In all, a decent set of buffs. As Celluloid is based on MPV
#News #AppUpdates #Celluloid #Mediaplayers #Mpv
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/celluloid-0-27-released-whats-new
Tiling Shell Update Adds New Keyboard Shortcuts + More
Tiling Shell, the Windows 11-esque window snapping extension I spotlighted last week received an update at the weekend, adding enhancements I feel are worthy of mention. This includes a request to support snapping windows in the active tiling layout using the keyboard only. Because though the slide-in drop-over Snap Assistant widget makes Tiling Shell mightily intuitive for pointer-led users (such as myself), there are times when moving/re-ordering tiled windows without taking your hands of the keyboard is preferred. And this is now possible in the Tiling Shell v9.x update. Like other tiling window managers/extensions, you can move an active window
#News #AppUpdates #GnomeExtensions #TilingShell #WindowSnapping
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/tiling-shell-extension-adds-new-keyboard-shortcuts
Firefox 127 Lets You See Weather in New Tab Page
As you may know, Mozilla has big plans for its browser this year, and among the spate of new features is greater personalisation of the new tab page. While the ability to set a new tab background image is the most eye-catching (literally) customisation change in the immediate offing, a series of smaller, more practical tweaks are in the works too, like the ability to see weather info on the new tab page. Visiting a dedicated weather website is a proactive way to find out the latest forecast and temperature. But seeing at-a-glance conditions each time you open a new
#News #Development #Firefox #Weather
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/firefox-127-weather-new-tab-feature
ONLYOFFICE 8.1 Released with Much Improved PDF Editor + More
A new version of ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, a free, open-source, and cross-platform office suite, is now available to download Last autumn’s ONLYOFFICE 7.5 release introduced a new PDF application to the suite, which could be used to open/view PDF files, and perform some basic PDF editing, like form filling, highlighting, annotations, and scribbling on documents with a pen tool. In ONLYOFFICE 8.1, the PDF app matures into a fully-featured PDF editor, expanding the kinds of annotation and edits that are possible with files. It’s now possible to: In all, a nice clutch of changes that help round-out what users of
#News #AppUpdates #Office&ProductivityApps #Onlyoffice
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/onlyoffice-desktop-editors-8-1-new-features
Vivaldi 6.8 Released with Mail Buffs, Real-Time Tab RAM Usage + More
A new version of Vivaldi, the power-user’s preferred browser (right?) is out with a symphony—don’t groan—of improvements. While most people use the Vivaldi web browser for browsing the web, it’s able to do a fair bit more than that thanks to a variety of built-in features, including a note taking tool, calendar, RSS reader, and an e-mail client. Vivaldi Mail is built-in to the Vivaldi web browser, and it’s a pretty capable alternative to a regular desktop e-mail client like Thunderbird: POP3/IMAP friendly, fetches and stores mails from your web account(s) locally, powerful search and filters, and all that good
#News #AppUpdates #Vivaldi
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/vivaldi-6-8-browser-update-improved-mail
Ubuntu Summit 2024 Location & Date Announced
Fancy rubbing shoulders with the great and the good in the Ubuntu community, learning new things, seeing cool demoes, and maybe getting a little bit merry with fellow geeks? Well, you can at the Ubuntu Summit, which this year is being held in The Hague, the Netherlands from October 25 to the 27th. As always, the Ubuntu Summit is free to attend, though you do need to register. Since returning in 2022, the in-person Ubuntu Summit has helped to revive the spirit, camaraderie, and general joie de vivre so beloved of the original, physical Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) which was
#Community #News #Canonical #Uds
Framework Laptop RISC-V Motherboard Announced
Those of you who own a Framework Laptop 13 —consider me jealous, btw— or are considering buying one, you may be intrigued to hear that a RISC-V motherboard option is in the works. DeepComputing, the company behind the recently-announced Ubuntu RISC-V laptop, is working with Framework Computer Inc, the company behind the popular, modular, and Linux-friendly Framework laptops, on a RISC-V mainboard option. As this is hot of the press and in early development there’s no price or pre-order date yet. But we do know is will be based around the StarFive JH7110 with 4 U74 RISC-V cores. This is
#Hardware #News #Framework #LinuxLaptops #Risc-V
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/framework-laptop-risc-v-motherboard-announced
KDE Plasma 6.1 Released With… Well, Quite a Lot!
KDE Plasma 6.1 has been released with a plethora of productivity and performance-minded improvements. Building on the KDE Plasma 6.0 release from earlier in this year, the 6.1 update sees KDE developers deliver “improvements and powerful new features to every part of your desktop”, with promises that future updates will see things ‘get more interesting’. Plasma 6.1 allows users to initiate a remote desktop access straight from the System Settings app, to which Remote Desktop clients, like KRDC, can connect. RDP features aren’t new to KDE per se, but this new integration makes setting up connections easier. KDE is king —or queen,
#News #Kde #KdePlasma6 #RemoteDesktopSession #Wayland
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/kde-plasma-6-1-new-features
Cinnamon 6.2 Desktop Goes Stable Ahead of Linux Mint 22 Release
If you’re looking forward to the upcoming Linux Mint 22 release you’ll be pleased to hear that the Cinnamon 6.2 desktop environment was “released” this weekend. Quote marks because we’re talking a tarball release rather than “it’s rolling out to all existing users”. Indeed, Cinnamon 6.2 will, as I’m sure you’re aware, ship as the default desktop in Linux Mint 22, which is expected to be released sometime this summer — maybe next month? — and will be first version based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. From a glance over the Github change-log, Cinnamon 6.2 looks like a modest refinement to
#News #Cinnamon #LinuxMint
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/cinnamon-6-2-desktop-whats-new
Super Charged Window Snapping with Tiling Shell on Ubuntu
If you’re looking for a more powerful and configurable window tiling experience on Ubuntu look no further than Tiling Shell, a new GNOME Shell extension which super-charges window snapping. Last year, Ubuntu improved its window tiling capabilities by making the ‘Tiling Assistant’ GNOME Shell extension part of the default desktop install. Enabled out-of-the-box, this offers quarter tiling, horizontal half-tiling, and a time-saving tiling prompt to snap other open apps. This welcome addition to the Ubuntu desktop fulfilled a long-requested feature from users, and the feature is something I used daily. Yes, past-tense. I’ve disabled Ubuntu’s Tiling Assistant and now use
#News #GnomeExtensions #WindowSnapping
DEB Installers in Ubuntu App Center Coming Soon
One of the biggest drawback to Ubuntu’s new App Center, the Flutter-based replacement for GNOME’s Software Center, is that it doesn’t let you install DEBs downloaded from the web. To be clear (since confusion often creeps in) the Ubuntu App Center does allow you to install DEB software so long as it’s the Ubuntu repos. What it doesn’t (currently) do, which the many software center incarnations over the years did, is ‘side load’ DEB packages. But, at long last, this feature is coming. On the App Center Github there’s been a spurt of activity in a pull request to plumb
#News #AppCenter
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/deb-installer-in-ubuntu-app-center-coming-soon
The World’s First RISC-V Laptop Running Ubuntu
A RISC-V laptop preloaded with Ubuntu is in development, and Canonical is involved. The DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II is made by DeepComputing, a company formed by self-described “RISC-V pioneers” back in 2022, and based in Hong Kong. Their aim: develop and release all kinds of products to help drive development of the RISC-V ecosystem. And this is the second-generation version of their DC-ROMA laptop, though the first to run Ubuntu. This laptop is powered by the SpacemiT K1 system-on-a-chip, which packs 8 64-bit RISC-V cores running at 2.0GHz. This supports the RVA 22 Profile RVV 1.0 for “high performance computing”,
#Hardware #News #Canonical #LinuxLaptops #Risc-V
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/the-worlds-first-risc-v-laptop-running-ubuntu
Showtime is GNOME’s Budding Replacement for Totem Video Player
Watching videos on Ubuntu is trivial thanks to a stellar cast of top-tier Linux video players to choose from, with the likes of VLC, MPlayer, and more — but there’s a new one in town vying for a leading role on the desktop. Streaming is the dominant way to watch video content these days, but a place remains for versatile, user-friendly, offline-first media players, even if only for infrequent use (like previewing a clip before uploading it online for others to stream). Ubuntu uses Totem (aka Videos) as its default video player by virtue of the fact it’s the GNOME
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/test-gnome-showtime-new-video-player
Firefox 127 Released with Improved Screenshot Tool, Security Boost
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me and I’m feeling… Like I ought to crack on with writing a post to say Mozilla Firefox 127 has been released — because it has! Yes, it’s already been a month since Firefox 126 made its way into the wild, and Mozilla laid out its plans for the browser during the next 12 months. While this latest release doesn’t feature any of those changes, like vertical tabs, new tab wallpapers, and better profile management, there are some appreciable uplifts which improve the browser’s prowess, security, and
#News #AppUpdates #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/firefox-127-improves-screenshot-tool-mixed-content-https
Linux System Monitor App ‘Mission Center’ is Now Even More Useful
A new version of Mission Center, the super-slick system monitor for Linux, has been released. I’ve written about this utility a number of times before, so if you read this blog regularly you—aside from being awesome—may be familiar with it. And if you’re not? Well, you’re in for a treat. As Linux system monitors go (and there are more than a few) Mission Center is easily one of the best for fans of graphical user-interfaces who want to check their system’s CPU and RAM usage. Mission Center monitors CPU (overall or pre-thread), memory and swap usage, disk usage and transfer
#News #AppUpdates #SystemTools
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/mission-center-system-monitor-new-features
TUXEDO Working on Snapdragon X Elite Linux Laptop
Linux laptop vendor TUXEDO has confirmed plans to release a Linux ARM laptop based on the Snapdragon X Elite SoC. It recently showcased a prototype of a new ARM notebook at Computex, the annual computer event in Taiwan. Powered by the Snapdragon X Elite and running an ARM port of their Ubuntu-based TUXEDO OS with the KDE Plasma desktop. This is the same chip that’s been in the (tech) news a lot of late as it’s powering Microsoft’s new wave of Copilot+ laptops running Windows 11 ARM. Like Apple Silicon, the X Elite has CPU, GPU, NPU and memory all
#Hardware #News #Arm #ArmLaptops #LinuxLaptops #Snapdragon #Tuxedo
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/06/tuxedo-working-on-snapdragon-x-elite-linux-laptop
