Flexbar Brings Apple’s Touch Bar Back from the Dead

15 hours 24 minutes ago

A new crowdfunding project aims to revive the (oft-derided) MacBook Pro Touch Bar, this time as a standalone device that work with Windows, macOS and, potentially, Linux too. It’s called Flexbar, and it’s currently seeking cash through Kickstarter. Now, I don’t like writing about crowdfunding projects generally. If I do, they need to offer something novel, or have a track record of delivering. Flexbar is novel, but the campaign has red flags that make me doubtful it will ever exist – more on that in a mo. If you don’t know your Apple from your Orange Pis, the Touch Bar was […]

You're reading Flexbar Brings Apple’s Touch Bar Back from the Dead, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Cinnamon Desktop 6.4 Brings New Look, New Features

1 day 17 hours ago

A new version of the Cinnamon desktop environment has been tagged for release – a sure-fire sign that the Linux Mint 22.1 beta is on the way! As the flagship desktop of Linux Mint, Cinnamon 6.4 will come preinstalled in Linux Mint 22.1 when it’s released at the end of December (though should beta testing reveal issues the date could slip into early 2025). But this post isn’t about Linux Mint 22.1, but Cinnamon. Linux Mint may develop, maintain, and cheerlead the desktop but it can installed on nearly every Linux distribution out there, including Ubuntu (which also has an […]

You're reading Cinnamon Desktop 6.4 Brings New Look, New Features, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

HandBrake 1.9 Brings Lossless VP9 Encoding, Intel QSV VVC Decoding

2 days 15 hours ago

A major new update to the powerful open source video converter HandBrake is available. In the 6 months (give or take) since the HandBrake 1.8 release arrived with its GTK4 (but not libadwaita) GUI in tow, the team has furnished this free media conversation software for Windows, macOS, and Linux with a fresh batch of features. HandBrake 1.9 adds support for lossless VP9 encoding. Now, the app already supports converting to VP9, but lossless support means it can convert videos while retaining 100% of the original input quality. The downside to lossless video formats in general is huge file sizes […]

You're reading HandBrake 1.9 Brings Lossless VP9 Encoding, Intel QSV VVC Decoding, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Discord Screen Share Audio Now Works on Linux

3 days 20 hours ago

If you’re an avid user of the Discord Linux app and been annoyed that screen share audio doesn’t work, there’s good news: it now does! The latest version of Discord for Linux at long last includes the option to ‘share system audio’ when setting up a screen share to stream in chats or server channels. Though it works on Windows and macOS, Discord has been silent on when it plans to support screen audio sharing on Linux – so much so it’s been the top feature request on the Discord feedback tracker for years. But this week Linux user Aden […]

You're reading Discord Screen Share Audio Now Works on Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Calibre 7.22: Better eReader Support, New Restart Option

4 days 23 hours ago

Calibre 7.22 is out — and yes, I’m making extra special effort to not mangle the version number this release as I always seem to insert an extra period in the string whenever I cover the the app! Unwieldy looking though it can seem, the open-source Calibre ebook manager remains unsurpassed in terms of features, tools, and capabilities. Add in the fact it’s cross-platform too, and it’s easy to see why it remains a go-to for avid e-bookworms. Calibre 7.22 builds on recent feature additions, adding a new option to set the position of the control bar when using ‘Read […]

You're reading Calibre 7.22: Better eReader Support, New Restart Option, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Mozilla Announce Smaller, Faster Firefox Downloads For Linux

5 days 23 hours ago

Firefox fans on Linux will enjoy smaller download sizes and faster decompressing when using the official binary builds from the Mozilla website. The browser maker today announced its switching to the tar.xz format — yes, that xz —to distribute its Linux builds, which uses the more efficient LZMA compression algorithm to deliver smaller downloads and faster extraction times. Most Linux users get Firefox updates as a regular software update from a distro-maintained repo, e.g., a Firefox Snap on Ubuntu, a Firefox DEB on Linux Mint and Pop!_OS, etc. But Mozilla say by switching from BZIP2 (tar,bz2) to XZ (tar.xz) Linux […]

You're reading Mozilla Announce Smaller, Faster Firefox Downloads For Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

elementary OS 8 Released with New Dock, Quick Settings + More

1 week ago

Indie distro fans rejoice: elementary OS 8.0 is now available to download. Built on the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base and powered by the Linux 6.8 kernel, elementary OS 8 brings a swathe of improvement to both the Pantheon desktop environment, its core apps, and the overall user experience. The elementary team says it focused on several areas for this release, including the creation of a new secure session (using Wayland, but not currently default), improved multitasking with a new dock, and “empowering our diverse community through inclusive design”. Below, I highlight elementary OS 8’s most notable user-facing changes and provide a […]

You're reading elementary OS 8 Released with New Dock, Quick Settings + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Firefox 133 Released with Faster Access to Tabs on Other Devices

1 week 1 day ago

Mozilla Firefox 133 was released today, furnished with some new features and UI refinements long-time users are sure to appreciate. In the 4 weeks since Firefox 132 brought us certificate compression, tweaked the way the ‘copy link without site tracking’ surfaces, and flicked the switch on hardware acceleration of SVG primitives in WebRender, Mozilla’s developers added the following: Of these, the tab overview menu option is the one most easily spotted (assuming you’re signed into your Mozilla account and you use the browser on other devices). Elsewhere, Firefox 133.0 also introduces Bounce Tracking Protection to the ‘strict’ mode in Enhanced Tracking Protection […]

You're reading Firefox 133 Released with Faster Access to Tabs on Other Devices, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Warp, the AI-infused Terminal, Relaxes Its Login Requirement

1 week 1 day ago

If you were put off trying the Warp terminal app on Ubuntu (or another Linux distro) due to the account and login requirement, there’s good news. The team behind the Rust-based, AI-infused terminal tool has relented on the requirement that users sign-up for and log in with a Warp account before they can run a command. As of this week, anyone can download Warp for for macOS or Linux (it’s coming to Windows soon) and access “all of the core features […] with a preview of more advanced features” without an account, and without logging in. Although, having tried the […]

You're reading Warp, the AI-infused Terminal, Relaxes Its Login Requirement, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Want to Install Snap Apps in Linux Mint? Here’s How

1 week 2 days ago

Snap is Canonical’s universal package format for Linux. It lets developers build their software once for users on multiple Linux distributions to use. At least, that’s the theory. In reality, few Linux distributions outside of the Ubuntu ecosphere support Snap out of the box. Most carry the underlying Snap daemon package (snapd) in the repositories, so it’s possible for users who want to use snaps, to do so. Linux Mint takes a different approach to that, however. Ubuntu-based it may be, riding the Ubuntu repos and benefitting from the ongoing bug, security, and other patches Canonical’s engineers push out, but […]

You're reading Want to Install Snap Apps in Linux Mint? Here’s How, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

FreeCAD 1.0 Released After 22 Years in Development

1 week 4 days ago

Good things come to those who wait. And for 3D modelling professionals using open-source software, the wait for FreeCAD 1.0 has been a long one – over 22 years in the making! At long last, this free, open-source alternative to expensive engineering software like Autodesk Fusion 360, AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS etc., finally issued its first, formal stable release. A major milestone all told. Not that a lack of 1.0 release had put people off using it prior to now, of course. FreeCAD in already widely used – from professionals and engineering students to 3D printing enthusiasts, both on Linux and other […]

You're reading FreeCAD 1.0 Released After 22 Years in Development, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Warehouse Makes Managing Flatpak Apps on Ubuntu Easy

1 week 5 days ago

Flatpak is no longer just a promising format whose potential lay in the far future – it’s already the go-to way for developers to package and distribute their software on Linux, including to those of us using Ubuntu. While Ubuntu has no plans to support Flatpak officially, both Flatpaks and Flathub (the main source of Flatpak apps) work great on Ubuntu — well, most of the time! There’s just one thing that puts some users off using Flatpak apps on Ubuntu: managing them. GNOME Software is the main graphical way to handle software in most GNOME-based Linux distros. It lets […]

You're reading Warehouse Makes Managing Flatpak Apps on Ubuntu Easy, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Ubuntu? That’s a Bullfinch, Not an Oriole

1 week 6 days ago

Here’s something lighthearted for you—unless you’re pedantic about ornithology, in which case you won’t be so chirpy: it seems a Bullfinch found its way into Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole’. Did someone leave a window open?! If you have upgraded to Ubuntu 24.10 and changed the default wallpaper you will have noticed some of the supplementary (i.e., non-default) desktop backgrounds prominently feature an ‘oriole’ bird. Or what the artist thinks is an oriole bird, as it turns out. Ubuntu’s Bullfinch Bird Bug According to a bug recently filed on Launchpad, home of Ubuntu development, one of the supplemental wallpapers included in […]

You're reading Ubuntu? That’s a Bullfinch, Not an Oriole, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Blender 4.3 Brings Vulkan Backend, AMD Ray-Tracing to Linux

2 weeks ago

Feeling creative? After you’ve scanned out slew of changes shipping in the new Blender 4.3 release, you’ll find it hard not to! Blender 4.3 is the latest stable release of the phenomenally powerful open-source 3D modelling software. Its creators say the update builds on the Blender 4.2 LTS release earlier this year with “improvements to existing tools, performance enhancements, and the foundations that will shape the years to come.” I’ll recap the key changes in a second, but first I want to highlight a couple of big things that Linux users will be interested to know… Blender 4.3: Big Linux […]

You're reading Blender 4.3 Brings Vulkan Backend, AMD Ray-Tracing to Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Ubuntu 25.04 Daily Builds Are Now Available

2 weeks 1 day ago

A sure-fire way to tell that development has moved up a gear: Ubuntu 25.04 daily builds are now available to download. Development formally got underway on Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ last month, with the final stable release of Ubuntu 25.04 arriving on Thursday April 17, 2025. You’re probably wondering what sort of new features Ubuntu 25.04 may offer and the daily builds will get everyone ample chance to find out, first-hand, nice and early. Only, there’s not much new to see — yet. What’s Coming in Ubuntu 25.04? There are plans to ship a new document viewer app in Ubuntu […]

You're reading Ubuntu 25.04 Daily Builds Are Now Available, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Linux Kernel 6.12 Has Landed – And It’s a Big One

2 weeks 2 days ago

Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux kernel 6.12, and an eclectic assortment of changes contained within make it one of the most biggest kernel releases for a while. In his message to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to announce the release Linus Torvalds notes that the final week of testing delivered “no strange surprises this last week, so we’re sticking to the regularrelease schedule”. But what made it in? Let’s take a look… Linux 6.12: What’s New? Really real-time kernel The headline feature in Linux 6.12 is mainline support for PREEMPT_RT. This patch set dramatically improves the performance of real-time applications […]

You're reading Linux Kernel 6.12 Has Landed – And It’s a Big One, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Automatic Tiling Added to ‘Tiling Shell’ GNOME Extension

2 weeks 4 days ago

I’d promise to shut up about the Tiling Shell GNOME Shell extension but I can’t because new features are coming thick and fast — the latest: support for automatic tiling. Yes, this nifty workflow wonder is finally able to automatically tile newly opened windows based on the currently active tiling layout (and as you may sick of me re-emphasising: you can switch between different layouts ad-hoc, and create and save your own). Windows auto-tile to the best vacant slot in the layout. But what’s ‘best’? Tiling Shell developer Domenico Ferraro says this will be the ‘vacant tile nearest to the […]

You're reading Automatic Tiling Added to ‘Tiling Shell’ GNOME Extension, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Rhythmbox Update Brings DAAP Server Fix, Podcast Tweaks

2 weeks 6 days ago

A new version of the GTK-based music player Rhythmbox has been released, the first major update in over a year. Rhythmbox 3.4.8 is billed as a ‘minor improvement release’, so there are no shiny new features or (some would say overdue) UI changes to speak of. But there are plenty of bug fixes and smaller quality enhancements worth knowing about. Although primarily used to listen and manage local music files, Rhythmbox supports network shares, podcasts, radio streaming, and integration with online services like Magnatune and Last.FM. In this release, the app includes several podcast improvements, including better handling of episode […]

You're reading Rhythmbox Update Brings DAAP Server Fix, Podcast Tweaks, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

Ubuntu 25.04 Set to Ship With New PDF Viewer

2 weeks 6 days ago

It could be all change for the PDF viewer in the next version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu’s long-time PDF viewer Evince (aka Document Viewer) is comes preinstalled in Ubuntu at present—I can’t recall using a version of Ubuntu that didn’t use it. But next April’s release of Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ may replace Evince with a newer document viewing app called Papers, marking a major change in the distro’s default app set. Papers, a modern GTK4/libadwaita app, is able to ‘view, search and annotate’ documents in a wide range of formats, with PDF handling a primary focus — like Evince. So […]

You're reading Ubuntu 25.04 Set to Ship With New PDF Viewer, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon

RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13 Available from $199

2 weeks 6 days ago

Framework make the most exciting laptops around —I don’t own one to be able to say they’re good, but the modular components, and upgradeable and repairable ethos is unlike anything else. As news earlier this year that owners would be able to swap their Intel-based mainboard for a RISC-V mainboard underscores. Well, there’s now an update on that front. DeepComputing (who make the Ubuntu-powered DC-ROMA II laptop & Pad II tablet) has launched an early access program for its DC-ROMA RISC-V Mainboard for the Framework Laptop 13. The mainboard is also compatible with the  Framework and Cooler Master Case (which […]

You're reading RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13 Available from $199, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon
2 hours 35 minutes ago
OMG! Ubuntu
Ubuntu News, Apps, Tips & More
Subscribe to OMG! Ubuntu feed