First Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Point Release Delayed By 2 Weeks
The first Ubuntu 24.04 point release won’t be released this week, as initially planned. Ubuntu developers had been aiming to release Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS on Thursday, August 19th, but has been delayed due to ‘high-impact upgrade bugs’. As a result, Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS is now due for release on Thursday, August 29th, two weeks later than initially planned. Those already using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS don’t need to be concerned since point releases are just ‘refreshed’ installer images that integrate all of the updates released to 24.04 LTS since its debut back in April. However, the first point-release in a new 
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/first-ubuntu-24-04-lts-point-release-delayed
Thunderbird 130 Beta Includes a Tray Icon for Linux
The first Thunderbird 130 beta release is out, and when running it on Linux there’s a very obvious new feature: a tray icon! In the Thunderbird 130 beta release notes the ‘what’s new’ section lists “added Linux system tray icon”, and what’s mind-blowing about the addition is that it developers a feature request first filed on the Mozilla bug tracker a staggering 25 years ago! Tray icons are a bit old hat, but they remain useful on systems that don’t handle background apps in an intuitive or familiar manner. Thunderbird for Windows has a system tray icon/applet, but the e-mail
#News #AppUpdates #Beta #Thunderbird
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/thunderbird-beta-linux-tray-icon
Fastmail & Mailbox WebDAV/CalDav Fixes Coming to Ubuntu 24.04
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS users experiencing issues setting up Fastmail and mailbox.org providers in GNOME Online Accounts to access cloud files, calendars, and/or contacts will be pleased to hear a fix is inbound. Both aforementioned services support WebDAV, CalDAV, and CardDAV, making it easy for users to access their cloud files, calendar and contact information through others apps and services (like desktop and mobile apps). GNOME 46 features added a generic WebDAV provider to GNOME Online Accounts (GOA), making it possible for users of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to sign into any WebDAV-supported service through (GOA) to allow desktop apps to fetch/read
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/ubuntu-24-04-fastmail-mailbox-webdav-fixes
Canonical Announce Major Ubuntu Kernel Change
Every been miffed when reading about a major new Ubuntu release only to learn it does not include the latest Linux kernel? Well, that’ll soon be a thing of the past. Canonical has announced a major change to its kernel selection process for future Ubuntu releases. An “aggressive kernel version commitment policy” pivot means it will now seek to ship the latest upstream kernel code at the time of a new Ubuntu release. Which is a huge change. It effectively means every new Ubuntu release (the ones that come out in October and April) will include the latest upstream Linux
#News #Development #LinuxKernel #Ubuntu #Ubuntu24_10
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/canonical-announce-major-ubuntu-kernel-change
3-in-1 Linux Convertible Laptop Unveiled by TUXEDO
TUXEDO Computers has unleashed their latest Linux laptop, the InfinityFlex 14 — as you might have guessed from the name, it flips and folds. The company touts their dextrous new device as ‘the first 3-in-1 Linux convertible’, with its 360-degree hinge1 allowing the touch-enabled 16:10 display to be flipped back into tablet mode and folded into ‘touch monitor’ mode for, er, watching movies I guess. TUXEDO InfinityFlex 14 supports active style via the Microsoft Pen Protocol 2.0. A pen isn’t not included with the device, so buyers need to add one during checkout. Bundling one in would make the InfinityFlex
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/3-in-1-infinityflex-14-linux-laptop-tuxedo
You Can Now Download Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha with COSMIC Desktop
You’ve heard about System76’s new COSMIC desktop environment, you’ve seen screenshots and and WIP video clips of it, but now it’s time to take it for a test flight. The first alpha release of the COMSIC desktop is out, and so is the Pop!_OS 24.04 alpha, which comes pre-loaded with COSMIC making it easy to download an ISO, flash it to a USB, booting it up, and trying COSMIC yourself. Pop!_OS 24.04 is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, the latest long-term support release of Ubuntu. And while this new version of Pop!_OS sits atop the same technical underpinnings as Ubuntu
#News #CosmicDe #DistroRelease #Pop!_Os
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/you-can-now-download-pop_os-24-04-alpha-with-cosmic-desktop
Firefox 129 Released with New Tab Wallpapers & Reader View Tweaks
Mozilla Firefox 129 is now available download, and comes with a couple of features customisation fans are sure to enjoy. It’s been 4 weeks since Firefox 128 dished out a unified cookie, cache n’ data clearing experience, the ability to translate portions of text on a web page, and introduced a new privacy-respecting ‘alternative to user tracking’ API. Does Firefox 129 improve on all of that? Of course it does — for more details, scroll on! Mozilla Firefox 129: What’s Changed? I’ll kick off with the most eye-catching new feature in Firefox 129: new tab wallpapers! I previewed this feature back in
#News #AppUpdates #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/firefox-129-released-adds-new-tab-wallpapers
GNOME Now Has an Official Extension for Legacy Tray Icons
As part of every GNOME release (spanning GNOME Shell, Mutter, core apps, etc) is an official set of GNOME Shell extensions. This is non-default package is “a collection of extensions providing additional and optional functionality to GNOME Shell” that are developed and maintained by GNOME developers. Ubuntu, like other Linux distributions that use GNOME Shell, doesn’t seed this pack of desktop bolt-ons in its default install, but do package it and keep it in their repositories. On Ubuntu you run sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions to get it. Most of these ‘official’ extensions are available to install from the GNOME Extensions website.
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/gnome-official-status-icons-extension
Amarok 3.1 Released with Last.FM Tweaks, Qt 6 Prep + More
A new version of Qt-based music player Amarok is available to download. Amarok 3.1 lands three months after Amarok 3.0, which was the first release in nearly 6 years and saw the audio player’s developers complete their port to Qt 5 (which receives further polish here, in 3.1). But with Qt 6 now out work to port Amarok to Qt 6 and KDE Frameworks 6 has been picking up steam. Thought that effort isn’t complete here, in Amarok 3.1, the team say it’s “not that far away” – so that’s great to hear. Amarok 3.1 overhauls its Last.fm integration plugin
#News #Amarok #AppUpdates #MusicPlayers #QtApps
Firefox Nightly Makes Picture-in-Picture Mode MUCH Easier to Use
The latest Firefox Nightly build provides a feature that dramatically improves how its picture-in-picture (PIP) feature works — and I’m totally digging it! In current stable versions of Firefox you pop-out video content from (supported) websites like YouTube and Amazon Prime manually, by clicking a button. Doing this enables you to continue watching content in a small, floating window while you switch tabs, minimise the browser, etc. Picture-in-picture mode also allows you to pause/resume playback, see a progress bar, mute audio, enter full-screen, and even view subtitles — some features are streaming site/service dependant. I find this feature super handy,
#News #AppUpdates #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/firefox-nightly-makes-picture-in-picture-mode-much-easier-to-use
3 New AI Features Rolling out to Chrome Users on Linux
Google has announced a clutch of new AI-powered features have begun rolling out to users of Chrome on Windows, macOS, and —for once!— Linux. Chrome Vice President Parisa Tabriz unveiled the trio of AI features, all powered by the latest Google Gemini models, on The Keyword blog today. “We’re making it even easier to search what you see with the power of Google Lens, compare products across multiple tabs and rediscover sites from your browser history, whether you’re at home or at work.” As of writing only one of these is present in the Google Chrome 127 release, while the others will
#News #Ai/Ml #Gemini #GoogleChrome
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/08/google-chrome-new-ai-features
JetBrains Wayland Preview Now Available for Testing
JetBrains users wondering when Wayland support might land should check out the latest ‘Early Access Program’ (EAP) builds released earlier this month – Wayland preview, ahoy! At present, all of IntelliJ-based IDEs on Linux run in a Wayland session use XWayland (the X server compatibility mode for software lacking native Wayland support). XWayland works well enough that most people can’t tell the difference. That’s great. Still, in not taking full advantage of the benefits Wayland offers, there’s potential untapped. Which is why the latest JetBrains 2024.2 EAP builds are an exciting update. They make it possible to use IntelliJ IDEA
#News #AppUpdates #DevTools #Jetbrains #Wayland
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/jetbrains-wayland-preview-build
AppImage Fan? Be Sure to Check Out ‘Gear Lever’
AppImages are great: a single runtime containing all of the required dependencies for the app to run, in a double-click binary you can run from anywhere on your system. And therein lies the rub. When I download an AppImage for software like Audacity, Kdenlive, etc., it’s to a folder or my desktop. To run it, I have navigate to the folder and double-click on the binary as unless I manually choose to create a .desktop launcher it won’t appear in any app launcher/menu. Solutions exist, of course. In 2022 I featured a terrific tool to integrate AppImages with Ubuntu easily.
#News #Appimages #AppsOnFlathub #GearLever #Libadwaita
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/gear-lever-appimage-app-for-gnome
How to Enable Hardware Acceleration in Chromium Snap
Last May, Canonical announced that a hardware-accelerated version of the Chromium snap was available for testing on Intel (7th-gen and later) hardware. Hardware acceleration on the modern web is a real boon. VP8, VP9, H.264, and AV1 codecs are in wide use, and modern GPUs (integrated and discrete) have dedicated decoders on them in order to deliver smooth video streaming (Netflix, YouTube, etc), video calls, and cloud gaming (Moonlight, Xbox Cloud Gaming, etc). Obviously, the less your CPU is tasked with, the better your system runs as the GPU stays cooler, you avoid thermal throttling, and battery life increases as
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/enable-hardware-acceleration-chromium-snap
VirtualBox 7.1 Beta: Streamlined UI, Wayland Clipboard Sharing, New Logo
If you plan on trying the new Linux Mint 22 release in a virtual machine, you could double the fun by taking it for a spin in the new VirtualBox 7.1 beta release. Don’t tune out—most VirtualBox updates tend to be fairly minor, but the upcoming release of VirtualBox 7.1 is looking like a major update (and about time, I say). VirtualBox 7.1 brings with it a “modernized look and feel”, giving users a choice of UI mode: Basic streamlines the interface, reducing the amount of options, settings, and details shown; Expert puts all of VirtualBox’s functionality on show, within
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/virtualbox-7-1-new-ui-wayland-clipboard-apple-silicon-support
Linux Mint 22 Released, This is What’s New
Linux Mint 22 ‘Wilma’ is officially released and available to download. This major update is the first version built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. As such, Linux Mint 22 inherits a comprehensive set of updates to underlying package, library, tooling, and technology stacks. A new Linux kernel and updated graphics drivers also feature. Plus, Linux Mint 22 ships with a new version of the Cinnamon desktop (with new options), includes a suite of new and updated apps (along with a few downgrades and removals), and notable security changes (no more guest login on) – plus more. In this post, I give
#News #Cinnamon #LinuxMint
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/linux-mint-22-released-based-on-ubuntu-24-04
Radxa X4 is a $60 Intel-Based Raspberry Pi Alternative
Love the idea of tinkering around with a small, single-board computer (SBC) but need something more powerful than most ARM-based offerings provide? If so, the Radxa X4 may be of interest. Powered by a quad-core Intel N100 processor with Intel UHD graphics, the Radxa X4 costs the same as a top-end Raspberry Pi 5 but delivers better overall performance in CPU and GPU tasks — albeit not in power consumption, and it runs hotter under normal load than a Pi. The Intel N100 has 4 cores and 4 threads, a max turbo frequency of 3.40 GHz, 6 MB Intel Smart
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/radxa-x4-cheap-intel-n100-raspberry-pi-alternative
Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha (with COSMIC) Drops on August 8
Course set: the first alpha of Pop_OS 24.04 is scheduled for release on August 8th. So if you’ve been counting the days until you can try the new COSMIC desktop environment first hand… Well, keep counting until then! 😅 Pop!_OS 24.04 will based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and inherit much of the foundational improvements Canonical’s engineers and Ubuntu developers have plumped in. On top of that will sit the new COSMIC desktop environment, its new homegrown apps (file manager, terminal, software hub, etc), and all of System76’s other embellishments n’ enablements (including first-tier support for their own laptops and desktops,
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/pop_os-24-04-alpha-with-cosmic-drops-on-august-8
Ebook App FBReader Adds Support for DRM Ebooks
FBReader 2.1 has been released for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with the team behind the eBook reading app calling it “a major update for desktop platforms”. If you’re not familiar with FBReader (the name stands for ‘Favourite Book Reader’) it’s a Qt-based ebook reader with customisation options, an ebook library, and integration with online sources to download ebooks. FBReader was open-source software until 2015, after which it transition to freeware for Windows, macOS, and Linux (closed source, but free), and freemium for Android and iOS (free version limited, paid version available). While older, open-source versions of FBReader are still around,
#News #AppUpdates #Ebooks #Fbreader
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/fbreader-2-1-released-readium-lcp-drm
Tiling Shell Adds Another Way to Tile Windows Quickly
If you’ve tried the Tiling Shell GNOME extension you’ll know how easy it makes it to tile application windows in GNOME Shell, from simple to more complex. The latest update, which began rolling out through the GNOME Extensions website this weekend, adds yet another intuitive way to tile windows as you work. First it provided a slide-in Windows 11-style Snap Assistant on to which you drop windows to tile them accordingly. Next, it added keyboard shortcuts to support tiling windows without using a mouse. Then, more recently, edge-tiling introduced. But Tiling Shell v12 adds another way to tile – one
#News #AppUpdates #GnomeExtensions #TilingShell
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/07/tiling-shell-adds-another-way-to-tile-windows-quickly
