If you plan on trying the new Linux Mint 22 release in a virtual machine, why not double-up the fun by taking it for a spin in the VirtualBox 7.1 beta, which slipped out last night. Don’t tune out—most VirtualBox updates are fairly modest, I know. But the upcoming release of VirtualBox 7.1? It’s being billed by Oracle as a ‘major … [Read more...]

And we’re go – Linux Mint 22 ‘Wilma’ has been officially released and made available to download. This major update is the first to be based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS This major update is built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and sees Linux Mint 22 inherit big updates to underlying packages, libraries, tooling, and core technology stacks. … [Read more...]

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 new Radxa X4 from Radxa may be of interest. Powered by an Intel N100 CPU with Intel UHD graphics, the Radxa X4 delivers better performance in CPU and GPU tasks than a Raspberry Pi 5, at a … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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, … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

I recently rediscovered my Amazon Kindle (a geriatric model from 2012, nothing fancy) and figured, as it still works, I’ll use it, and set about downloading a freely available EPUBs of classic (and not-so-classic – I’m a pulpy-kinda guy) literature. They say never judge a book by its cover – but it is useful to be able to … [Read more...]

Were you excited by news GNOME plans to replace the Totem media player in its core software set with a new, modern, and actively maintained app called Showtime? If so, you may be just as excited to hear that it’s now available to install from Flathub. This means you no longer need to set-up the GNOME Nightly repo (and then tussle with endless … [Read more...]

OBS Studio, the open-source leader in cross-platform screen-casting and streaming software, put out a new release this week. OBS Studio 30.2 adds Linux support to the native NVENC encoder, plus Linux shared texture support to the NVENC, QuickSync, and VA-API encoders. And as of this update, PipeWire window/display capture is combined into a single, … [Read more...]

A new version of the open-source, cross-platform audio editor Audacity is available to download, kitted out with some major new features. Audacity 3.6 introduces support for master effects. These adjust the sound of project as a whole (the ‘master mix’ composed of all individual tracks and any realtime effects applied to them) and, … [Read more...]

Blender 4.2 LTS has landed, delivering a slew of new features and improvements that open-source 3D artists are sure to love. You're reading Blender 4.2 LTS Brings New Render Engine, GPU Compositor + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. … [Read more...]

The recent update to AppArmor to remedy issues with 3rd-party apps being unable to run on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (due to its security hardening) inadvertently prevents a fleet of popular Flatpak apps from running either. The Telegram Desktop, KeePassXC, and Steam clients are among Flatpak apps users have reported issues with, seemingly due to the … [Read more...]

When Scott suggested I cover a new open-source app for Linux on the basis it is “like Microsoft PowerToys for developers”, I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d be writing about — or why. But after reading the website for DevToys, which describes the app as a “Swiss Army knife for developers”, things made a lot more … [Read more...]

Linux kernel 6.10 has been officially released. The latest version of the Linux kernel adds an array of improvements, including a new memory sealing system call, a speed boost for AES-XTS encryption on Intel and AMD CPUs, and expanded Rust language support within the kernel to RISC-V. Plus, as with all kernel releases, there’s a glut of … [Read more...]

This weekend Apple officially approved the first PC emulator on the App Store, the open-source app UTM SE which is based on QEMU and is entirely free to download (no IAP). UTM SE can emulate a variety of desktop operating systems and system architectures, including MS-DOS, Windows XP, and (of course) many Linux distributions—all without … [Read more...]

A major update to the open-source e-mail client Thunderbird is now available to download. Thunderbird 128 ‘Nebula’ builds on last year’s stellar Thunderbird 115 release with a flurry of new features, major code improvements, and bug fixes. And like the recent Firefox 128 release this version of Thunderbird is an Extended Support … [Read more...]