4 New Effects Added to ‘Burn My Windows’ GNOME Extension
A set of four cool new window opening and closing animations got added to gaudy GNOME Shell extension Burn My Windows this weekend. A veritable Linux eye-candy essential, Burn My Windows makes it easy to apply a variety of visual effects to Ubuntu when opening and/or closing app windows, dialogs, and modals. Its sole purpose is to make using Linux a bit more entertaining. Burn My Windows v45 is the latest update. It adds support for the upcoming GNOME 48 release (which will ship in Ubuntu 25.04 this April), fine-tunes effect filtering in Preferences, and improves its Incinerate effect with 
#News #BurnMyWindows #EyeCandy #GnomeExtensions
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/4-new-visual-effects-added-to-burn-my-windows-gnome-extensions
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS is Available to Download
The Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS release is now available to download, albeit one week later than initially planned. Serving as the second point release in the current Ubuntu 24.04 LTS series, Ubuntu 24.04.2 compacts the slew of security, bug, and software updates pushed out to the Noble Numbat since the last point release ISO was spun in August 2024. Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS also brings an updated hardware enablement stack (HWE). This is composed of a newer Linux kernel and updated graphics drivers—Linux 6.11 and Mesa 24.2.8 respectively—back-ported from Ubuntu 24.10. Why do point releases exist? Ubuntu LTS versions are supported for a
#News #DistroRelease #PointReleases #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/ubuntu-24-04-2-lts-is-now-available-to-download
Mozilla Announces Leadership Changes in an Effort to ‘Diversify’
Mozilla Corporation’s president, Mark Surman, has announced plans to tackle the ‘major headwinds’ facing the company’s efforts to make money and remain relevant. “Mozilla’s impact and survival depend on us simultaneously strengthening Firefox AND finding new sources of revenue AND manifesting our mission in fresh ways,” says Surman. To do this, Mozilla plans—no groaning—to ‘diversify’ its efforts. It will invest (more) in privacy-respecting advertising, develop open-source AI features1 to retain ‘product relevance’, and go all-out on fundraising initiatives to er, get us all to chip in and pay for it, I guess! A new Mozilla Leadership Council is being launched,
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/mozilla-announces-leadership-changes-in-an-effort-to-diversify
Mesa 25.0 Released with Support for Vulkan 1.4 & OpenGL 4.6
A new version of the Mesa graphics library has been released. Mesa 25.0 features Vulkan 1.4 support, which the team bill as the ‘flashiest addition’ in this new development release as it spans Anv (Intel), Asahi (Apple), Lavapipe (software), NVK (NVIDIA), PanVK (Mali), RADV (AMD), and Turnip (Qualcomm). The OpenGL 4.6 API also sees implementation in Mesa 25.0 though the version reported will depend on the hardware driver in use since not all drivers support all features OpenGL 4.6 requires. AMD RDNA4 graphics sees initial support in the RadeonSI Gallium3D (OpenGL) and RADV (Vulkan) drivers is present, the former worked
#News #Amd #GraphicsDrivers #Mesa #Vulkan
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/mesa-25-0-vulkan-1-4-amd-rdna4
Power Profiles Daemon 0.30 Preps Support for Linux 6.14
A new version of the Power Profiles Daemon (PPD) was uploaded to the Plucky archives today, and should soon make its way out to Ubuntu 25.04 daily builds —but what’s changed? The power-profiles-daemon is what those of who run Ubuntu (or Linux Mint 22.1, which finally added PPD) interact with when we switch power mode on the fly, be it using a GUI button, setting, or toggle, or the command line. The latest 0.30 release adds a couple of notable changes, though nothing as substantive (to end-users) as the various AMD-targeted tune-ups the previous release delivered. Still, improvements are improvements. Some
#News #Battery&Power #PowerProfiles #Ubuntu25_04
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/power-profiles-daemon-0-30-preps-support-for-linux-6-14
Ubuntu LTS Users Could Get Intel GPU Updates More Frequently
This week sees the (belated) release of Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS, the first point release update in the noble series to deliver an updated hardware enablement (HWE) stack. Ubuntu’s HWE backports newer Linux kernel and Mesa GPU drivers to LTS users in an effort to ensure the latest LTS works well with the latest hardware. But it could soon include a lot more. This week, Canonical engineer Shane McKee put forward a proposal to expand Ubuntu HWE updates so they loop in a broader range of graphics driver packages for Intel hardware. —the entire point of the HWE, after all. The
#News #GraphicsDrivers #Hwe #Intel
How to Disable (or Change) Login Sound in Ubuntu 24.10
When you log in to Ubuntu 24.10 an audio clip plays to greet you — a lengthy audio clip that slowly builds to a plinky-plonky crescendo that you—or those around you—may tire of having to sit through! But you can turn Ubuntu’s startup sound off, or swap it for an audio clip more to your tastes. Startup and login sounds were a staple part of Ubuntu during its formative years, but the distro decided to disable them in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS after getting feedback that, actually, they could be a bit annoying. Some 12 years Ubuntu 24.10 added a startup
#HowTo #Customization #Loginsounds #Ubuntu24_10
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/disable-or-change-ubuntu-login-sound
Tiling Shell Update Adds Window Suggestions for Screen Edge Snapping
A new version of Tiling Shell, the flexible window snapping assistant for GNOME Shell, is available. Tiling Shell v16.2 now surfaces nifty ‘Window Suggestions’, a feature introduced in last month’s v16.0 release, when using edge tiling. Edge Tiling (as no doubt you well know) is triggered by dragging a window to the sides of the screen. Window Suggestions for Edge Tiling is not enabled by default, so be sure to head to the extension’s Preferences panel to toggle it on (where you can also enable it for the key-drag tiling system method as well, if you like). Elsewhere, the extension
#News #GnomeExtensions #TilingShell
Ubuntu’s Icon Theme Fixing Its Not-So-Obvious ‘Bug’
Ever looked at Ubuntu’s default icon theme Yaru and found yourself thinking: “Eh, some of those icons look too big”? —No, can’t say I had either! But it turns out some of the icons are indeed oversized. The Yaru icon theme in Ubuntu uses 4 different shapes for its app, folder and mimetype (file) icons, with a shape picked based on what works best for the design motif being used. Those shapes are: Of those, the most common icon shape used in Yaru is ‘square’ (with rounded corners, but don’t call it a squircle cos that’s so 2014, y’all). It’s
#News #Design #Icons #Ubuntu25_04 #Yaru
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/ubuntus-icon-theme-resized
‘Unfortunate Incident’ Means Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS Won’t Be Released This Week
Bad news for anyone expecting Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS to drop tomorrow – the release has been delayed by a week. An ‘unfortunate incident’ caused some Ubuntu 24.04.2 images to be built without the HWE kernel on board (Linux 6.11), Canonical’s Utkarsh Gupta reports. Since including a new kernel version is a key part of new point release media, it needs to be there. Building a new Ubuntu installer image is only one part of the task given that, once built, each ISO also needs to undergo testing. There’s not enough time to do all of that and still meet the
#News #Canonical #PointReleases #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/ubuntu-24-04-second-point-release-delay
GNOME’s Website Just Got a Major Redesign
GNOME rolled out a huge revamp to its official website today, and I have to say: it’s a solid improvement over the old one. The official GNOME website has an important role, serving as both showcase and springboard for those looking to learn more about the desktop environment, the app ecosystem, developer documentation, or how to get involved and support the project. Arranging, presenting, and meeting all of those needs on a single landing page—and doing it in an engaging, encouraging way? Difficult to pull off—but GNOME has. The new design looks flashy and modern. It’s more spacious and vibrant,
#News #Design #Gnome
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/gnome-website-revamp-goes-live
Clapper Media Player Adds New Features, Official Windows Build
A new version of the slick Clapper media player is out with several neat improvements Not newly new, I should say. I hadn’t run a flatpak update in Ubuntu I an age so I only jus noticed an update pending for this nifty little media player. But I figured I’d write about it since it’s been around 10 months since its last major release (save a bug fix release last summer). So what’s new? Well, Clapper 0.8.0 intros a new libpeas-based plugin system in its underlying Clapper library (which other apps can make use of to playback media, as Mastodon client
#News #AppUpdates #Clapper #MediaPlayers
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/clapper-update-adds-official-windows-builds
KDE Plasma 6.3 Released, This is What’s New
A new version of KDE Plasma is out and, as you’d expect, the update is packed with new features, user experience enhancements, and performance tweaks. KDE Plasma 6.3 is the fourth big update in the KDE Plasma 6.x series and it marks the one-year anniversary of the KDE Plasma 6.0 debut, as KDE notes in its 6.3 announcement: One year on, with the teething problems a major new release inevitably brings firmly behind us, Plasma’s developers have worked on fine-tuning, squashing bugs and adding features to Plasma 6 — turning it into the best desktop environment for everyone!” KDE As
#News #DesktopEnvironments #Kde #KdePlasma6
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/kde-plasma-6-3-released-this-is-whats-new
ONLYOFFICE 8.3 Released with Support for Apple iWork Files
A new version of ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, a free, open-source office suite for Windows, macOS, and Linux, is now available to download. ONLYOFFICE 8.3 brings a bunch of new features and nimble enhancements spread throughout the full suite, which is composed of word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and PDF editing apps. The ‘headline’ new feature is the ability to open Apple iWork (.pages, .numbers, .key) and Hancom Office files (.hwp, .hwpx) to convert them to OOXML for editing – you can’t export/save edits back to the original file format, though. iWork support is a fairly big feature addition, despite the fact that
#News #AppUpdates #Office&ProductivityApps #Onlyoffice
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/onlyoffice-8-3-released-new-features
How to Disable ‘App is Ready’ Notifications in Ubuntu
Finding yourself annoyed at those ‘window is ready’ notifications which pop-up when you open some apps in GNOME Shell on Ubuntu? If so, you can disable them by installing a GNOME Shell extension. Now, notifications are helpful—heck, vital when they inform, alert, or indicate that something requires our immediate attention or actioning. But “app is ready” notifications? I don’t find them anything other than obvious. I’m not amnesic; I know the app is ready – I just opened it! They aren’t predictable either. Some apps show them, others don’t. It depends on the app’s metadata, how fast app initialisation is (you’ll see them more
#HowTo #GnomeExtensions #GnomeShell
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/disable-window-is-ready-notifications-gnome-shell
Ghostty Update Adds Server-Side Decoration Support on Linux
A new version of Ghostty emerged this week and in this post I run-through the key changes. For those unfamiliar with it, Ghostty is an open-source terminal emulator written in Zig. It offers a “fast, feature-rich, and native” experience — doesn’t claim to be faster, more featured, or go deeper than other native terminals, just offer a competitive combo of the three. Given it does pretty much everything other terminal emulators do, fans faithful to more established terminal emulators won’t find Ghostty‘s presence spooks ’em into switching. It’s a passion project there to be used (or not) depending on need, taste,
#News #AppUpdates #Ghostty #TerminalApps
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/ghostty-update-adds-server-side-decoration-support-on-linux
LibreOffice 25.2 Released, This is What’s New
LibreOffice 25.2 has been released, this year’s first major update to the leading open-source office software for Windows, macOS, and Linux. As you’d expect, the update delivers a sizeable set of changes spread throughout the productivity suite, including notable UI changes, accessibility improvements, and more important interoperability buffs to support cross-suite workflows. It’s always important to remember that software like LibreOffice doesn’t appear out of thing air; it’s made by humans, many unpaid, others working on specific things. LibreOffice 25.2 features 6 months worth of development in total with 47 percent of code commits coming from devs employed by ‘ecosystem
#News #AppUpdates #Libreoffice
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/libreoffice-25-2-released-this-is-whats-new
Installing Ubuntu on WSL Just Got Much Easier
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) user? If so, you will be pleased to hear that Ubuntu is now available in Microsoft’s new tar-based distro format — no need to use the sluggish Microsoft Store. Canonical announced the news today, noting that “the new tar-based WSL distro format allows developers and system administrators to distribute, install, and manage Ubuntu WSL instances from tar files without relying on the Microsoft Store.” In not relying on the Microsoft Store for distribution, it’s less hassle for enterprises to roll out (and customise) Ubuntu on WSL at scale as images packaged in using the new
#News #Microsoft #Wsl
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/ubuntu-tar-based-wsl-install
Firefox 135 Brings New Tab Page Tweaks, AI Chatbot Access + More
Right on schedule, a new update to the Mozilla Firefox web browser is available for download. Last month’s Firefox 134 release saw the New Tab page layout refreshed for users in the United States, let Linux go hands-on with touch-hold gestures, seeded Ecosia search engine, and fine-tuned the performance of the built-in pop-up blocker. Firefox 135, as is probably intuit, brings an equally sizeable set of changes to the fore including a wider rollout of its new New Tab page layout to all locales where Stories are available: It’s not a massive makeover, granted. But the new layout adjusts the
#News #AppUpdates #Firefox
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/mozilla-firefox-135-released
How to Fix Spotify ‘No PubKey’ Error on Ubuntu
Do you use the official Spotify DEB on Ubuntu (or an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution like Linux Mint)? If so, you’ll be used to receiving updates to the Spotify Linux client direct from the official Spotify APT repo, right alongside all your other DEB-based software. Thing is: if you haven’t checked for updates from the command line recently you might not be aware the that security key used to ‘sign’ packages from the Spotify APT repo stopped working at the end of last year. Annoying, but not catastrophic as it—thankfully—doesn’t stop the Spotify Linux app from working just pollutes terminal output
#HowTo #Spotify
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/02/fix-spotify-gpg-error-not-signed-ubuntu-linux-mint
