Window snapping GNOME extension Tiling Shell —not that you need an introduction to it by now— adds a nifty new feature in its latest update. Tiling Shell v16 introduces Windows Suggestions, a feature the add-on’s author described as being able to “provide intelligent recommendations for other windows to tile, making window management smoother and more intuitive.” Per the GIF below, placing a window in a tile using the tiling system results in on-screen suggestions for other windows to tile in the the remaining gaps. If too many windows are open (so suggestions don’t fit within the available space) it’s scrollable. […]

You're reading Tiling Shell’s Newest Feature Speeds Up Window Snapping, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Real-time AI subtitling is in the works for VLC, the phenomenally popular open-source media player. VideoLAN, the non-profit in charge of VLC development, demoed automatic subtitle generation in VLC during CES 2025 —where not using AI made you stand out this year— and shared a clip of the feature in action at their CES booth on X last week. No cloud service or internet connection is needed for VLC to auto-generate subtitles with AI. The feature works offline to provide real-time translation support for more 100+ languages; is able to translate/display two languages at once; and can ‘save’ translations to […]

You're reading VLC Developers Working on AI-Powered Real-Time Subtitles, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Google is teaming up with the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Meta, and Opera to form a new Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers group. Members of the group, managed by the Linux Foundation, will work together, pool resources, talent, time, and expertise to improve, innovate, and accelerate development of the open-source Chromium codebase. Why the Linux Foundation? Google cites their “long established practices for open governance, prioritizing transparency, inclusivity, and community-driven development.” For its part, Google says it has no intention of reducing its contributions to Chromium (which made up roughly 94 percent of all commits to the codebase in 2024), but will […]

You're reading Linux Foundation & Google Form New Group to Manage Chromium, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

A new alpha update to System76’s COSMIC desktop environment has arrived with a clutch of interactive improvements. This is the fifth alpha of the Rust-based DE since August 2024. More alphas will arrive each month until all the features planned to ship in the first stable release – or ‘epoch’, as System76 is calling them – are in place, at which point beta testing will begin. Arriving alongside this alpha is a refreshed ISO of Pop!_OS 24.04 (Alpha) with COSMIC Alpha 5 preinstalled — but, just like previous COSMIC desktop alpha releases, users of other Linux distributions, like Arch Linux, […]

You're reading System76 Release COSMIC DE Alpha 5: What’s New?, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Raspberry Pi has today announced the launch of a Raspberry Pi 5 with 16 GB RAM. A engorged-memory model had been oft-rumoured since the launch of the raspberry Pi 5 in 2024 – and long-desired by fans of this particular single-board computer (SBC). The launch of the new Raspberry Pi CM5 late last year offers up to 16 GB RAM whilst utilising the same underlying chipset as the Pi 5, all but confirming a bumper RAM revision for the full-size board was imminent. Why didn’t they launch a 16 GB model right away? It’s only due to last year’s (minor) […]

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Mozilla Firefox 134 has landed, making the browser’s first release of the new year. It’s been a month since Firefox 133 delivered time-saving tab overview access, beefed up bounce tracking protection, finessed flaws with Flatpak file opening, and smoothed out issues causing slow DNS lookup/connection timings on 64-bit Linux distributions. Do the changes in Firefox 134 best those? Let’s take a look! Firefox 134: New Features Touch hold gestures on Linux On Linux, Firefox 134 supports touchpad hold gestures. This allows kinetic scrolling to be stopped simply by placing two fingers on the touchpad. If you ever scroll down a lengthy article […]

You're reading Firefox 134 Brings Ecosia Search, Linux Touch Gestures + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Sad news from Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth today: longtime Ubuntu and Debian contributor Steve Langasek has passed away. In a touching post on the Ubuntu Discourse, Mark Shuttleworth shares: “Steve passed away at the dawn of 2025. His time was short but remarkable. He will forever remain an inspiration.” “Judging by the outpouring of feelings this week, he is equally missed and mourned by colleagues and friends across the open source landscape, in particular in Ubuntu and Debian where he was a great mind, mentor and conscience.” As a former Debian and Ubuntu release manager, and a long-term Canonical employee, […]

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If you’ve ever played around with customising Ubuntu (or any GNOME Shell-based Linux distribution) you’ll have encountered GNOME Tweaks, an official app giving you GUI access to options, settings, and controls not otherwise exposed in the UI. In recent years, GNOME’s developers have begun migrating settings out of GNOME Tweaks and into the desktop proper — a move which refutes that oft-opined claim that GNOME only removes options, never adds them. But we (as users) can’t expect GNOME to cover and cater to every whim, want and wish. It pulls engineers and developers away from working on arguably more important […]

You're reading Want to Tweak Advanced Settings in GNOME? Try Refine, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

A new year has started, and who knows what kind of innovations and improvements it holds for for Ubuntu, which remains the world’s most used desktop Linux operating system. We get two new releases of Ubuntu each year, one in April and one in October. Plus, new point releases of the latest long-term support release rolling up bug fixes, app updates, and back-porting newer Linux kernels and GPU drivers. So 2025 should be another golden year for Ubuntu, those of us using it, and the Linux and open-source community as a whole. Changes to Ubuntu in 2024 span a wide […]

You're reading What Do You Want to See From Ubuntu in 2025?, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

As another year transitions from present to past, I want1 to recap the notable new features, changes, updates and innovations Ubuntu saw over the past 12 months. And there was a fair bit: we got a noble new long-term support release in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, plus an opulent follow up in the form of Ubuntu 24.10, Canonical focused on ensuring Ubuntu stays the forefront of next-gen tech, and even snaps started to suck less! ;) For a round up of 10 cool things Ubuntu got, did, or committed to in 2024—listed in no particular order, lest anyone question my priorities— […]

You're reading 10 Cool Changes Ubuntu Received in 2024, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Removing backgrounds from video in Kdenlive, the free, open-source video editor for Linux, macOS and Windows, is about to get a whole lot easier. Developers are adding a “modern background removal tool” that uses machine learning to create object masks so you can ‘cut out’ an object, person, or item in a video clip. Real-time background removal features are common in video conferencing/chat apps like Slack. They allow a user to replace their actual backdrop (like a messy kitchen) with an alternative image or, sometimes, even a video clip. And image editing tools like GIMP and Photoshop have long been […]

You're reading Kdenlive is Adding One of Final Cut Pro’s Best Features, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Orbit by Mozilla is a new AI-powered assistant for the Firefox web browser that makes summarising web content while you browse as easy as clicking a button. After all, why read an article to understand what it says when you can read an AI summary rephrasing the article instead? ;) Mozilla’s AI assistant Orbit is currently a beta product and available to install from the Firefox add-ons site where the extension, which works on Firefox for Windows, macOS, and Linux, is pitched thus: Orbit empowers you to stay informed and efficient by delivering the information you need in a condensed […]

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Loupe (aka Image Viewer) is GNOME’s modern successor to the venerable Eye of GNOME has picked up its first batch of image editing features. The features in question were only recently merged upstream, aren’t finished, and not yet included in a stable build. But they’re an interesting addition that furthers the likelihood that Loupe could become the default image viewer on Ubuntu. At present, Ubuntu continues to use Eye of GNOME as the default tool for opening and browsing image files on desktop, despite Loupe having officially replaced it upstream in the GNOME project as a GNOME Core app. Loupe […]

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We’re seeing something of a terminal emulator renaissance of late, with developers eager to reimagine, rethink, and rewire the humble console to leverage modern hardware, GPU acceleration, containerised workflows, and (in some cases) AI/LLMs. Ghostty, a new open-source and cross-platform terminal application created by Mitchell Hashimoto (co-founder of HashiCorp) is the latest to join the fray. Hashimoto’s says he “set out to build a terminal emulator that was fast, feature-rich, and had a platform-native GUI while still being cross-platform.” The first public release materialised over Christmas, rather like a festive Dickensian spook seeking to give us a glimpse into the […]

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You may have noticed (or not) that if an app is pinned to the Ubuntu Dock you don’t see a shortcut for it in the applications grid. This approach is by design to avoid duplication since the dock is always visible (by default) so those app shortcuts are always in reach – each app shortcut only shows once. Not everyone likes this behaviour, especially if Ubuntu Dock auto-hide is enabled. Naturally, there are 3rd-party GNOME Shell extensions one can install to make sure all apps show in the main applications grid irrespective of whether they’re pinned to Ubuntu Dock (or […]

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Ubuntu Pro is an optional security feature that Ubuntu LTS users can enable to receive critical updates for an extra 25,000 packages which would otherwise sit unpatched. If you use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS you will have seen Ubuntu Pro security updates in Software Updater (or when running apt commands). And you will have noticed you can’t install those updates without having an Ubuntu Pro subscription. Ubuntu Pro is free for all users on up to 5 machines, meaning the only ‘cost’ involved is the time it takes to register and setup Ubuntu Pro. Businesses (or home users) with fleets of […]

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A new version of OpenShot video editor is out (a video editor which doesn’t have the best reputation for stability hence the nickname OpenShut). OpenShot—more accurately, ChatGPT or similar—says “OpenShot 3.3 is here to transform your editing experience! This release is as powerful as it is beautiful […] Take your video editing to the next level with OpenShot 3.3. Download it now and see the difference”. The headline change in OpenShot 3.3 is the use of a new default theme called Cosmic Dust. This apparently offers a “modern editing experience”. The new theme looks nice, it I’m not sure it […]

You're reading OpenShot Video Editor Puts Out an Effortless, Seamless, Etc Update, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

In deep mid-winter nothing beats curling up with a good book, in-front of a roaring fire – the crackle of all the unwanted Christmas tat your nearest and dearest bought you chars, melts, and burns providing a warm aural soundtrack. Thankfully, not everyone’s feeling as seasonably irascible as I am – like the folks behind open-source ebook reader, manager, and converter Calibre. They’ve hand-wrapped a bug-fix update to help tide us over the festive season. Hurrah! As gifts that arrive in late December go, Calibre 7.23 is a modest one: more ‘last-minute box of chocs’ than something you really wanted […]

You're reading Bah Hum-bugfix – it’s the Christmas Update to Calibre!, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Canonical and Intel have announced they’re making it easier for Ubuntu users to get cutting-edge drivers for Intel’s newest discrete GPUs. The effort brings “ray tracing and improved machine learning performance” for Intel Arc B580 and B570 “Battlemage” discrete GPUs to users on Ubuntu 24.10, building on that releases’ preexisting support for Intel Core Ultra Xe2 iGPUs. “For the past decade, Ubuntu has been one of the first distributions to enable the latest Intel architectures. Building upon this strong collaboration, Intel and Canonical are excited to announce the availability of an Ubuntu graphics preview for [24.10]”, they say. Users with […]

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A sizeable update to the free, open-source video editor Kdenlive is now available to download. Kdenlive 24.12 arrives stuffed like a seasonal bird with bug fixes, performance tweaks, and usability enhancements. Additionally, the editor’s developers have removed support for Qt5 so that, as of this release, it is entirely Qt6. Subtitling gets a big boost with the arrival of Advanced SubStation Alpha (ASS) subtitle support. The key benefit of these subtitles (I’ll swerve calling them ASS) is greater customisation, including things like text strokes, drop shadows, margins, and even effects like masking. A new Subtitle Manager makes editing, ordering, and […]

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