Mozilla’s New Repo Brings Firefox Nightly Deb Builds to Ubuntu
Mozilla has announced a new apt repository to make it easier for users to install Firefox Nightly builds on Ubuntu and Debian-based Linux distributions. The Deb packages in the new repository are said to offer ‘multiple benefits’ compared to Snap and Flatpak builds. First, the Deb packages are compiled with optimisation to improve performance. Second, the binary is “hardened” with all security flags enabled. Third, updates are delivered directly from source, which is faster than waiting for them to be packaged via other channels. For those unaware, Firefox Nightly builds are intended primarily for developers as they contain bleeding edge 
#News #Apt #Firefox #Mozilla
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/firefox-nightly-deb-packages-mozilla-apt-repostiory
Linux 6.6 Kernel Released with Major New Features
A new version of the Linux kernel has been released — and, as ever, it delivers the goods. Linux kernel 6.6 is a big update that deliver a diverse array of improvements, including a new CPU scheduler that promises to improve performance and reduce latency, a new memory-friendly eventfs subsystem, and new drivers for a slew of gaming hardware. Plus, like most kernel updates, developers are preparing for the future by shipping ‘initial work’ and early bring up to support host of upcoming hardware, including new CPUs and GPUs from Intel. Linus Torvalds announced the launch of Linux 6.6 in
#News #LinuxKernel
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/linux-kernel-6-6-new-features
Discord is Now Verified on Flathub
Discord, the phenomenally popular chat platform, is now verified on Flathub. For years, a Discord Flatpak app has been available on Flathub albeit without any official association, approval, or contribution from Discord itself. However, that’s finally changed. Being verified on Flathub means an app is published “by its original developer or a third party approved by the developer”, according to Flathub documentation. Verified apps show a checkmark on the Flathub store page to let users know the software in question is legit. This means users who install Discord from Flathub on Linux can be certain that the Discord app they
#News #Discord #Flathub
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/discord-flatpak-now-verified-flathub
The Best Wallpaper Changer Extension for Ubuntu
Looking for an easy-to-use desktop wallpaper slideshow tool for Ubuntu? The distro doesn’t have a feature to automatically change the desktop background built-in. And while changing your wallpaper manually isn’t difficult I know I often suffer choice paralysis when trying to decide which flippin’ picture to set! Using a desktop wallpaper changer is a great way to keep your desktop fresh and interesting, show off your personality, or even make you more productive (yes, there’s been studies looking at this). Such tools automatically cycle through images on your computer or from online sources. Lots of Linux wallpaper changer apps exist,
#News #Bing #GnomeExtensions #Wallpaper
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/best-wallpaper-changer-extension-for-ubuntu
Microsoft is Attending Next Week’s Ubuntu Summit
If you’re rocking up to the Ubuntu Summit in Riga, Lativa next week you’ll find yourself in the company of Microsoft. Yes, the makers of Windows (and one-time arch enemy of Linux) has announced it’s going to be at the Ubuntu Summit. Why? These days Microsoft loves Linux and open source, and has a healthy working relationship with Canonical, makers of Ubuntu. We’re a long way from the days of that phrase, folks. Microsoft isn’t going there to be a passive spectator, wandering the corridors between talks looking a bit sheepish. It’s holding talks and workshops to showcase the “Windows
#News #Microsoft #Uds
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/microsoft-is-attending-the-ubuntu-summit
Ubuntu 24.04 ‘Noble Numbat’ is Now Open for Development
Ubuntu 24.04 development has officially started – and a codename officially confirmed! Last week I invited you you share your Ubuntu 24.04 codename predictions. Several of you suggested the numbat, a small, marsupial anteater native to Australia, as the next release mascot and it seems Ubuntu devs were of the same mind as Ubuntu 24.04 is codenamed ‘Noble Numbat’! Congrats to all those who guessed it! In an e-mail sent to the Ubuntu development mailing list Canonical’s Utkarsh Gupta kicked off proceedings, writing: “We’re pleased to announce that Noble Numbat is now open for development. Auto-sync has been enabled and
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/ubuntu-24-04-development-open
Linux Mint 21.3 to Feature Experimental Wayland Support
Linux Mint 21.3, the next major release of the popular Ubuntu-based Linux distro, will include experimental Wayland support in the Cinnamon desktop. Wayland is a modern display server protocol developed to ‘solve’ many of the shortcomings present in Xorg, a decades old tech at this point. Wayland is more efficient and more secure than X and is now widely used by many leading Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation. Adding Wayland support to the Cinnamon desktop isn’t an easy task, so Mint says it does not expect Wayland will replace Xorg as its default display manager “any time soon”
#News #Cinnamon #LinuxMint #Wayland
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/linux-mint-21-3-experimental-wayland-support
Ubuntu 24.04 Release Date Set for April 25, 2024
The next long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu, Ubuntu 24.04, is scheduled to be released on April 25, 2024. Launchpad, the home of Ubuntu development, lists this as the Ubuntu 24.04 release date, though it is, as always, subject to change. Other important dates in the Ubuntu 24.04 release schedule include Ubuntu 24.04 feature freeze (the point past which no major new features are added without request and approval) on February 29, 2024. Ubuntu 24.04 beta will be released on April 4, 2024 to allow for a solid few weeks testing to ensure that the next long-term support release is
#News #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/ubuntu-24-04-release-date-set-for-april-25-2024
Ubuntu Gets Mentioned in Official Doctor Who Spin-Off Series
What do trans-dimensional time and space machines, sonic screwdrivers, and the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system have in common? They’re all used in the Doctor Who universe! Ubuntu is no stranger to the worlds of Doctor Who. The enigmatic character of Joshua Naismith used the distro to control the ‘immortality gate’ featured in the final episodes of the 10th Doctor’s run (which aired back in 2009). Now, like the 10th Doctor’s actor, the distro has made a reappearance! During a conversation between characters in an episode of Doctor Who: Redacted (an official audio drama spin-off about the hosts of a podcast
#News #DoctorWho #Ubuntuinthewild
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/ubuntu-mentioned-doctor-who-redacted
Firefox 119 Lets You Add Images to PDFs, Import Chrome Extensions
Mozilla Firefox 119 has been released. The latest update to the open-source web browser brings a set of improvements that enhance its usefulness, both for those using it full-time and those looking to make a switch to it. For example, when importing data from Google Chrome Firefox 119 is now able to “import some of your extensions as well”. The “some” is the catch here as imported extensions must also be available on the Firefox Add-ons. Though the underlying technology is similar many popular Chrome extensions (and my own OMG! Ubuntu Chrome extension) are yet to be ported over. Elsewhere,
#News #AppUpdates #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/firefox-119-lets-you-add-images-to-pdfs-import-chrome-extensions
KDE Plasma 6.0 Release Date is Feb 28, 2024
Work is progressing fast on KDE Plasma 6.0, the next major release of this phenomenally popular open source desktop environment. But one question (had) remained: when will it be released? Last months KDE devs shared a tentative target of February 2024, a window within which the first formal release of KDE Plasma 6.0 would appear. Now they’ve gone one better. An official release schedule is out and it gives us the precise release date for KDE Plasma 6.0 (plus many of the related technology stacks paired with it). In fact, there are so many dates and package releases happening at once that
#News #KdePlasma #Kubuntu
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/kde-plasma-6-0-release-date-is-feb-28-2024
Errands is a Top To-Do List App for Linux Users
To get stuff done you need to get organised, and to-do apps can be a useful tool in helping you do that. There are plenty of terrific to-do list apps for Linux, ranging from focused with no-frills to complex with all-the-frills. In this post I spotlight an ace Linux to-do app I’ve been using a fair bit in recent months called Errands. Errands is a GTK4/libadwaita app written in Python. Its simple design and feature set makes it well-suited to those for those wanting to spend more time doing their tasks than organising them! Using this app you can: Nextcloud
#Apps #News #Office&ProductivityApps #Todoapps
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/errands-todo-list-app-for-linux
7 Spooky Desktop Wallpapers for Ubuntu
There’s a chill in the air – and not just because I left the kitchen window open. It’s Hallowe’en season! All Hallows’ Eve! Samhain! Commercialized creepiness! Whatever you call it, October is the only month of the year where you’re free to revel in the revolting, marvel at the macabre, and embrace the eerie without judgmental folks deeming you a bit weird. So here’s my (trick or) treat for you: a wicked collection of Halloween wallpapers with which to bewitch your Ubuntu setup (or non-Ubuntu setup; you can use these images anywhere, they don’t bite – I think). Where’d I
#News #EyeCandy #Wallpaper
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/eerie-desktop-wallpapers-for-halloween-linux
How to Display Battery Percentage in Ubuntu’s Top Panel
If you’ve installed Ubuntu on a laptop, you might want to view battery percentage in the top bar. In this post, I’ll show you how to do this. While the Quick Settings menu shows you the percentage of battery remaining, it’s “out of sight” until you click on it. That’s useful for the occasional check, but not ideal if you’re prone to forgetting! Having the battery percentage displayed on the panel is, to my mind, more convenient. It remains visible for the majority of the time you’re browsing, coding, writing, or whatever — though obviously not when something is full-screen.
#HowTo #UbuntuTips
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/show-battery-percentage-ubuntu-panel
What’s Your Ubuntu 24.04 Codename Prediction?
A new Ubuntu release cycle is about to start which means a new Ubuntu codename is needed. So in this post I’m asking what your choice for the Ubuntu 24.04 codename might be! Per tradition, the new moniker must start with the letter ‘N’, and use an adjective and animal (real or mythical) combination. We’ve had an eclectic troupe of titles of late, including: Earlier today Ubuntu not-so-subtly tweeted what I assume is first part of the next codename: Noble, adjective, moral in an honest, brave, and kind way Thus, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is the Noble… What? Since Ubuntu 11.10
#News #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/guess-the-ubuntu-24-04-codename
Happy 19th Birthday, Ubuntu!
Today is Ubuntu’s 19th birthday! Yes, you read that right: nine-freakin’-teenth. October 20, 2004 was when Ubuntu 4.10 arrived, codenamed ‘Warty Warthog’ as it was rough around the edges. The first version of Ubuntu proved an instant hit with Linux users. It lit the flame of popularity that saw the distro blaze an inextinguishable trail in the ensuing years. 19 years on and Ubuntu still leads from the front – from cloud to cluster, desktop to data centre Ubuntu 4.10 came on a single CD; it could detect hardware and configure support for it automatically; and it drastically simplified the
#News #Ubuntu4_10 #UbuntuBirthday
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/happy-19th-birthday-ubuntu
Raspberry Pi Imager 1.8.1 Released with UI Changes
A new version of the Raspberry Pi Imager is available to download. This cross-platform utility makes it easy to download and flash OS images made specifically for the Raspberry Pi to connected USB drives and SD cards. And in Raspberry Pi Imager 1.8.1 it’s somewhat easier to make sure you download an OS compatible with your device, as the the main screen’s first step now asks you to select your Raspberry Pi model. Once a model is selected the options presented step 2 are filtered to only show those that support your model. However, in testing this only affects the
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/raspberry-pi-imager-1-8-1-released-with-ui-changes
ONLYOFFICE 7.5 Released with Brand New PDF Editor + More
A new version of ONLYOFFICE, an open-source productivity suite for Windows, macOS, and Linux, is available to download. ONLYOFFICE 7.5 includes the usual grab-bag of improvements across its 4 core components (document editor, spreadsheet app, presentation maker, and form creator) plus, more excitingly, a brand new PDF editor. ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor supports annotations, form filling, text comments, and drawing. It can display PDF page thumbnails, pull out headings, and let you ‘find’ text within PDFs (case sensitive and whole word rules available). I will note that the PDF editor doesn’t have its own icon/entry in the sidebar of the main
#News #AppUpdates #Office&ProductivityApps #Onlyoffice
Kubuntu 22.04 LTS Users Can Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27
KDE Plasma 5.27 is now available for users of Kubuntu 22.04 LTS to upgrade to — if they want to. Kubuntu 22.04 LTS ships with KDE Plasma 5.24. That’s a great release that works well for most but it lacks a few of the fancier flourishes and refinements found in more recent versions of the desktop. Now no-one need miss out. Developers working on the popular Ubuntu flavour have put in the effort to package KDE Plasma 5.27 into a backports-extra PPA. This makes it easy for those wishing to, to upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27 on Kubuntu 22.04 LTS.
#HowTo #News #Backports #KdePlasma #Kubuntu #Ubuntu22_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/install-kde-plasma-5-27-kubuntu-22-04
VirtualBox 7.0.12 Out with Initial Linux 6.6 Support
Linux kernel 6.6 might not be out yet (it’s due in the next few weeks) but that’s not stopped Oracle adding initial support for it in the latest release of VirtualBox. VirtualBox shouldn’t need much of an introduction, of course. It’s one of the best-known pieces of open-source virtualisation software around – helped by the fact it supports all three major desktop operating systems as both host and guest. Issued today, VirtualBox 7.0.12 is a maintenance release that brings a boatload of bug fixes to bear, plus a few interesting bits of enablement (such as the aforementioned kernel prep), including
#News #AppUpdates #LinuxKernel #Virtualbox #Virtualmachines
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/virtualbox-7-0-12-released
