Canonical Will Donate $120k to Open Source Projects This Year
Canonical commits to donating $120k to the open source developers building the projects and tools that help power the Ubuntu ecosystem.
#News #Canonical #Github
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/canonical-commits-funds-open-source-devs
NordVPN Linux App Now Has a GUI
NordVPN today announced a major update to its Linux app, adding a much-requested GUI front-end that makes it easier to control, configure and monitor connections. Linux users have been able to use an official, comprehensive command-line interface for NordVPN for many years. Today’s announcement of a graphical user-interface option sees the company widen access to its offerings to Linux users of all experience levels. Now, a Linux GUI is available, providing, NordVPN say, “visually rich elements and ease of use without compromising advanced features. With just a few clicks, users can connect to a server, manage preferences, and monitor their 
#News #AppUpdates #Nordvpn #Security #Vpn
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/nordvpn-linux-app-update-adds-gui
Ubuntu 25.04 Upgrades Set to Go Live Again Soon
If you’ve been patiently waiting to do an in-place upgrade to Ubuntu 25.04 from 24.10, your patience is about to pay off. Ubuntu developers were forced to halt upgrades to the new Ubuntu 25.04 release due to a number of major bugs affecting users across different Ubuntu flavours. Some users were left with broken desktops (environments, that is – upgrading wasn’t melting PC towers); upgrading was removing third-party packages it shouldn’t have, while many Qt-flavour users couldn’t upgrade using the GUI tool due to missing dependencies. This is why Ubuntu 25.04 upgrades are not working at present (unless manually forced
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/ubuntu-25-04-upgrades-resume-after-bug-fixes
Kagi’s Orion Browser Linux Port Uses GTK4/libadwaita
I reported a few months back Kagi, the company behind the paid, private and privacy-focused search engine of the same time, is porting its Orion web browser to Linux – now we have our first early look at how its Linux GUI is shaping up. A recent development screenshot of Orion’s WIP Linux build shared by Kagi devs—pictured in the hero image above—reveals that Orion for Linux will use GTK4/libadwaita for its GUI. This is a logical choice: GTK4 is a modern, widely-used toolkit across Linux distros, with consistency at its core. And libadwaita provides widgets and capabilities that should
#News
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/kagi-orion-browser-linux-port-uses-gtk4-libadwaita
KDE Plasma 6.3.5 Update Available to Kubuntu Users
If you’re running Kubuntu 25.04 and want the latest fixes the KDE Plasma 6.3.5 release, you can use the Kubuntu backports PPA to get ’em. KDE Plasma 6.3.5 popped out a few weeks back, serving as the fifth and (likely) final bug-fix release prior to the next major release, KDE Plasma 6.4. Over the weekend, Kubuntu developers announced that the Kubuntu backports PPA has added the requisite packages for Kubuntu 25.04. Thus, Kubuntu users can add (or enable) the PPA to get the update now, rather than wait for the update to filter out through the usual software channels. The
#News #Kde #KdePlasma6 #Kubuntu #Ppas
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/kde-plasma-6-3-5-upgrade-ubuntu-25-04
DeepComputing Unveil RISC-V AI PC Running Ubuntu 24.04
Ubuntu is one of the leading Linux distributions for RISC-V hardware thanks to Canonical’s strategic partnerships with companies like DeepComputing – who just announced their powerful new RISC-V AI PC running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The DC-ROMA RISC-V AI PC is built around the new company’s new RISC-V Mainboard II, designed for use in the Framework 13″ or 14.2″ laptops. Owning a Framework laptop is not a requirement since a nifty enclosure allows the mainboard to be used like a regular PC. The DC-ROMA RISC-V AI PC—apologies for the caps, its how it’s stylised—uses ESWIN’s advanced RISC-V AI SoC EIC7702X—sorry for even more
#Hardware #Ai/Ml #DeepComputing #Framework #Risc-V #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/deepcomputings-risc-v-ai-pc-with-ubuntu-24-04
GNOME Replaces Totem Video Player with Showtime
Roll credits on Totem, roll camera on Showtime — GNOME developers have cast a new video player for a staring role in GNOME 49, out in September. Per an upstream change now merged, the aged GTK3 video player Totem has been replaced by newer, fresher and modern GTK4/libadwaita app Showtime in the GNOME Core Apps lineup. Like its predecessor Totem, Showtime’s user-facing name in GNOME 49 will morph into the generic moniker of Video Player (though I’d wager most of us will still call it by its codename, the same way we refer to Files as Nautilus). Showtime may be new in GNOME’s Core
#News #Gnome #Gnome49 #MediaPlayers #Showtime
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/gnome-49-replaces-totem-video-player-with-showtime
Easily Toggle Ubuntu’s New Wellbeing Reminders On/Off
The Wellbeing controls available in Ubuntu 25.04 make it easy to get periodic prompts to move your butt or look away from your screen — you might not want them enabled all the time, though. Wellbeing controls were one of the flagship features of GNOME 48. As well as screen time monitoring (with controls to set a screen time limit, and turn the display greyscale when it’s reached), you can enable reminders to take a break and move. Alerts telling you to get up and move may be helpful during the day, but at nighttime when you’re, say, engrossed in
#News #Gnome48 #GnomeExtensions #QuickSettings #Ubuntu25_04
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/ubuntu-wellbeing-toggle-gnome-extension
Linux Mint 22.2 Modernises its Default Theme
More details on the makeup of the upcoming Linux Mint 22.2 release have been shared, including its codename (for those who track those). Linux Mint 22.2, which is expected to be released in July or August, is named ‘Zara’, continuing project lead Clem’s codename convention of using female names in (somewhat) alphabetical order. I say ‘somewhat’ since Linux Mint 22.1 release was ‘Xia‘, yet Linux Mint 22.2 is ‘Zara‘ – not sure what Yara, Yasmin, Yvette, Yvonne and Yelena did wrong. Perhaps Clem went a dodgy date one time… It’s not the name of the the next release most Linux
#News #Cinnamon #EyeCandy #Libadwaita #LinuxMint
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/linux-mint-22-2-default-theme-changes
Ubuntu 25.10 Daily Builds Now Available to Download
Get early access to Ubuntu 25.10 'Questing Quokka' through official daily builds. Download, test and contribute to Ubuntu's development before its October release.
#News #Ubuntu25_10
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/ubuntu-25-10-daily-builds-download-testing
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Gets a Price Cut
Raspberry Pi has reduced the price on all 4GB and 8GB Compute Module 4 boards by $5-10, making embedded projects more affordable to try out.
#Hardware #News #RaspberryPi
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/raspberry-pi-compute-module-4-price-cut
Huawei MateBook X Pro 2024 (Linux Edition) Goes on Sale
Huawei has unwrapped its latest Linux notebook, the MateBook X Pro 2024 Linux Edition — alas, it’s only available in China. The Windows-free MateBook X Pro 2024 uses the exact same hardware as the Windows version, but clocks in at CN¥300 cheaper owing to the lack of Windows license fee and a national subsidy for non-Western tech. Chinese consumers can reportedly claim an extra discount of CN¥2000 on the purchase price as part of a national subsidy to promote usage of homegrown tech. With US sanctions in play, Microsoft is reportedly not renewing its deal to supply Huawei with Windows licenses once
#Hardware #News #Huawei #Kylin #LinuxLaptops
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/huawei-matebook-x-pro-2024-linux-edition-goes-on-sale
System Cleaner BleachBit Gets ‘Major Update’
Open source system cleaning app BleachBit has issued its first major update in over a year, bringing improved cleaning capabilities, security fixes, and myriad changes with it. For the benefit of those with dusty memories, BleachBit is a free, open source system cleaner for Windows and Linux, written in Python and GTK 3. Similar to other apps of its kind, BleachBit helps free up disk space by cleaning out caches, cookies, and other transient cruft. It can also delete files securely, wipe unallocated disk space, and squeeze Firefox’s SQLite database to improve performance. BleachBit 5.0 expands the feature set to
#News #AppUpdates #Bleachbit #SystemTools
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/system-cleaner-bleachbit-gets-major-update
Mozilla Says Google Search Deal Vital to Firefox’s Survival
Google’s search deal with Mozilla is such a sizeable portion of its overall income that without it, Firefox would struggle to survive — so say Mozilla. It’s no secret that Google pays Mozilla handsomely for its search engine to be set default in the Firefox web browser. Mozilla’s financial report for 2023 revealed that the amount of money accrued from its “search deals” that year made up roughly three quarters of its entire income (specific amounts and from whom is confidential; it’s lumped together). That figure was noted to be less than it used to be, but hey: so is Firefox’s
#News #Firefox #Google #Mozilla
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/mozilla-says-google-search-deal-vital-to-firefoxs-survival
Mission Center 1.0 Adds New Features
Linux system monitoring app Mission Center has put out its first update in 6 months – and it’s a big one! Mission Center 1.0 adds new hardware tracking, UI tweaks, and refactors its backend to provide palapble performance improvements, boost the app’s responsiveness and minimise ‘time deviations between refresh cycles’. The latter may sound a tad dry on the ‘excitement’ scale but, arguably, it’s a big thing: a real-time monitoring app is used for, well, real-time monitoring and those tweaks ensure hardware and system process info shown is more precise. For a closer lookout the “visible” changes in this release,
#News #AppUpdates #MissionCenter #SystemTools
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/mission-center-1-0-adds-new-features
Paprius Icon Pack Update Adds New Icons, Improves Plasma 6 Support
If you use the Papirus icon theme in Ubuntu you’ll be pleased to hear a new version is available to download. Frequent updates are why the Papirus icon set is hugely popular with Linux users. After all, it’s annoying to switch to a stylish icon set that leaves most of your apps un-themed icons, sticking out like a sore thumb. Not so with Papirus since it’s perpetually expanding its coverage. Papirus’s second update this year adds 69 new icons—nice—and 18 updated ones, makes various packaging and compatibility changes, and removes its ePapirus variants as elementaryOS 8 no longer lets users
#News #EyeCandy #Icons #Papirus
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/paprius-icon-set-update-new-icons-plasma-6-support
Canonical Brings Ubuntu 24.04 to Qualcomm Dragonwing Vision Kit
Canonical has announced the first official Ubuntu desktop image for the Qualcomm DragonWing platform. A beta image of Ubuntu 24.04 desktop compatible with Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 and QCS5430 processors, and specifically tailored for the Qualcomm RB3 (Gen 2) Vision Kit and RB3 (Gen 2 Lite) Vision Kit is available for testing. Ubuntu 24.04 server images were previously available for the same model vision kits, so it’s the addition of desktop builds that is an interesting development. Canonical say marrying a full Ubuntu desktop experience married with “powerful AI acceleration with high-performance graphics” in the Dragonwing devices provides “a powerful development environment
#Hardware #News #Arm #Iot #Qualcomm #Ubuntu24_04Lts
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/ubuntu-24-04-desktop-qualcomm-dragonwing-release
Ubuntu 25.10 Opens for Development
The Questing Quokka is off: development today opened on Ubuntu 25.10, the next short-term release of Ubuntu. Canonical engineer Utkarsh Gupta fired the figurative starting pistol on the Ubuntu mailing list, announcing the opening, and that auto-sync has now been enabled. “As usual, we expect a large influx of builds and autopkgtests in this initial period, which will cause delays. Please help fixing any breakage that occurs,” Gupta adds. It’s only been a couple of weeks since the Ubuntu 25.04 release, but the dedicated devs who spent 6 months diligently shaping that release don’t get much time for a breather. From now
#News #Ubuntu25_10
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/ubuntu-25-10-opens-for-development
Linux App Release Roundup (April 2025)
April brought a solid set of software updates to an assortment of different apps. In this post, I run through recent releases that didn’t get the “whole article” treatment on this blog. Sometimes, it’s a challenge to cover everything I want to (especially in an Ubuntu release month, as April was). It also relies on me knowing a new release is out, and in a timely fashion. I track as much as I can, as best as I can. But it’s easy for things to pass under my radar (which is why the new tips you send me through the
#News #AppUpdates #Elgato #Lrr #Qemu #Typhoon
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/04/linux-app-release-roundup-april-2025
Track Moon Phases From Your Ubuntu Desktop With Luna
Luna brings moon phases to your Ubuntu desktop with a simple GNOME Shell extension. Track current phase, illumination percentage, and upcoming changes right from your panel.
#News #Astronomy #GnomeExtensions #Moon
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/04/ubuntu-gnome-luna-moon-phase-indicator-extension
