A new stable release of Flatpak is out with a wealth of improvements in tow. Flatpak 1.16.0 is the first stable release in the new 1.16.x series, coming more than two years after the Flatpak 1.14.x cycle began and containing features, fixes, and other work undertaken from the 1.15.x development releases. Such as? Well, the way that Flatpak apps … [Read more...]

Enlightenment 0.27, released this week, brings a wealth of incremental improvements to users of this unique desktop environment. Though not as well known or widely used as GNOME, Xfce, KDE Plasma, et al, Enlightenment (often abbreviated as just ‘E’) differentiates itself through the use of Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL). An … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 2 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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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. … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]