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With Ubuntu 25.04 feature freeze now in effect the final licks of polish and paint have begun landing — including an update to Ubuntu’s Yaru theme. The Yaru theme is composed of a modified GTK4/libadwaita stylesheet, GNOME Shell theme, icon pack, and set of system sounds. With visual change and new features in GNOME 48 to account for, the design team working on Yaru have dutifully update the theme to accommodate. Most of the changes are subtle, but Yaru’s oversized icon bug I reported on last month? Fixes to address that did make it in. Thus, in 25.04 you may […] You're reading Ubuntu 25.04 Yaru Theme Update Brings New Icons, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A ‘fresh new look’ is heading to Bodhi Linux, the Ubuntu-based Linux distribution built around the Moksha desktop, a fork of Enlightenment 17. Noting that the look of recent releases has leaned towards the dark side—no, not that one, Darth—the team has decide to give the next release a lighter visual revamp by making a new theme, called Zenithal, default. “Zenithal, developed by Štefan Uram and based on the Ice theme by Simotek, introduces a polished light aesthetic that brings a fresh energy to Moksha. It also marks a first for Bodhi: windows and dialogs with rounded edges,” they say. Bodhi Linux’s […] You're reading Bodhi Linux Shows Off New Theme, Revived Modules, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Open source audio editor Audacity has issue a new patch release with a sizeable set of bug fixes, including an appreciable one for Ubuntu users using the official Audacity AppImage. Audacity 3.7.2, the second point update in the currently Audacity 3.7 series which debuted in October of last year, fixes FFmpeg loading in its official AppImage when run on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (and Linux distributions based off of it). Which is welcome. Elsewhere, Audacity’s noise reduction filter regains a “Residue” option thanks to a community contribution, and no longer screws up pasting content copied from a clip by offsetting its […] You're reading Audacity 3.7.2 Released with Ubuntu AppImage Fix + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The default wallpaper for Ubuntu 25.04 ‘Plucky Puffin’ has been unveiled. Each new Ubuntu release bears a bespoke desktop background and animal mascot, and the upcoming release of the Plucky Puffin proves no exception. Ubuntu 25.04’s default wallpaper makes heavy use of the nautical motifs proffered by its codename animal (a puffin). Avian art is, as per, placed atop a purple gradient background1 with trademark polygonal edge detailing: The “colour” version above is the stock default, but there are 4 variants in total: colour, light, dimmed, and dark (used in dark mode). Users can set any of those as their […] You're reading Ubuntu 25.04 Default Wallpaper & Mascot Unveiled, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you’re an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS user regularly experiencing issues with connecting to audio devices, there’s an important update to the Bluetooth stack rolling out this week. Many users of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS have found paired Bluetooth audio devices (mainly earbuds/phones) fail to connect following suspend or system restart, be it automatically or manually. According to a slew of bug reports, many noble users found trying to manually connect to a previously-paired devices after a restart or suspend would fail — for some, up to 30 attempts would fail to connect or stay connections, requiring the need to remove and […] You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 Fixes Bluetooth Audio Connection Issues, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The KeepassXC snap package now “just works” with web browsers, with the latest update adding support for native messaging using secure desktop portals. KeePassXC is a cross-platform, open-source password manager billed as a ‘community-driven port of the Windows application ‘Keepass Password Safe'”. It supports Linux (including CLI), and a snap package has been available since 2017. But until now users who installed the snap to leverage the browser integration (be it auto-fill of usernames and passwords on websites they visit, or saving credentials for new accounts they create) have needed to use a workaround involving an external script. Aside from […] You're reading KeePassXC Snap App Finally Supports Web Browser Integration, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A big update to the perennially popular GNOME Shell extension Dash to Panel is rolling out, including new settings to go from Dash to Panel to dock mode! Admittedly, that doesn’t sound like a new feature given that Dash to Panel is based on code from Dash to Dock. Yet, until now, those wanting the unified panel of Dash to Panel with the aesthetic of a dock… Had to make do with an inelegant fudge, or switch extension. No more; when whim and want demands a dynamic dock setup, Dash to Panel’s preferences area can help, making it easier to […] You're reading Dash to Panel GNOME Extension Gets Big Update, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Kagi, the company behind a paid, private search engine1 of the same name, has announced it’s bringing its Webkit-based Orion web browser to Linux. In a post on BlueSky, Kagi said: “We’re thrilled to announce that development of the Orion Browser for Linux has officially started!”. Orion is currently only available on macOS and iOS but was built to be better than Apple’s own Safari, and best Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and other browsers in many areas. Orion is a zero-telemetry browser; has built-in ad and tracking blocking; and reportedly offers lower memory usage, faster page speeds, and greater battery […] You're reading Kagi is Bringing Orion Web Browser to Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
An update to the Mutter display manager is primed to begin rolling out to users of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS — with much-needed touchscreen fixes in tow. I don’t know how many of you use Ubuntu desktop on a touch-enabled device—not many, I’d wager. I do have; I have a touchscreen laptop that runs Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and I do prod, poke, and push the screen a bit whilst using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. While my device is able to fold resemble on, I don’t use it as a tablet since, despite some folks’ assumption, GNOME Shell is not what I’d described […] You're reading Ubuntu 24.04 Update Fixes Several Touchscreen Quirks, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Desktop email client Thunderbird announced a move to monthly releases by default earlier this year, allowing new users to benefit from new features, sooner – as the new Thunderbird 136.0 release makes evident! Thunderbird 136.0 sees messages auto-adapt to dark mode (and adds a quick toggle to control this in the header) — no more searing-white e-mail shocks in dark rooms! Also added is a new Appearance setting to control message threading and sorting order globally. This is great if you always want, say, new messages at the bottom in all your configured folders. Some notable fixes include ensuring that addresses […] You're reading Thunderbird 136 Release Adds New Appearance Controls, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Is Huawei planning to ship Linux on its upcoming MateBook laptops instead of HarmonyOS NEXT? A fresh leak out of China this week suggests so. Huawei is no stranger to selling laptops with Linux. Various models in its MateBook 13, 14, 15, and MateBook X Pro lines have been sold in both Windows and Linux configurations, with the latter typically exclusive to China and reloaded with Debian-based Deepin. The—somewhat contentious—company has previously said all PCs released in 2025 would run the newer home-grown, closed-source HarmonyOS NEXT (viewed as an effort to wean reliance off of western-led tech companies, solidify control, […] You're reading Huawei’s New Laptops May Run Linux, not HarmonyOS Next, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Earlier this year Ubuntu announced plans to replace document viewer app Evince with Papers, a modern GTK4/libadwaita fork1 of the former, in Ubuntu 25.04—today, the swap was made official. Papers is a fork of Evince that is actively maintained and makes use of newer technologies (GTK4, THIS), that are already present in Ubuntu. Upstream, GNOME 48 (out in March) opts to keep Evince as a core app but GNOME 49 is expected to switch to Papers. Ubuntu feels no reason to wait. Dabbled with daily builds of the Plucky Puffin prior to now? You might have noticed Papers isn’t present […] You're reading Ubuntu 25.04’s New PDF Viewer App is Now Rolling Out, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The new Mozilla Firefox 136 release delivers a number of notable new features—features Mozilla may be hoping help it re-earn some goodwill from users following last week’s privacy palaver. Last month’s Firefox 135 release rolled out a refreshed tab page to more users, added in-page translations from Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, enforced certificate transparency, and ditched the ‘Do Not Track’ setting. This month sees a long-anticipated features make their stable release debut: vertical tabs! Right-click an empty space in the tab bar, select Turn on Vertical Tabs from the context menu and—bam!—they appear instantly as a a vertical strip of icons on the left-hand […] You're reading Firefox 136 Released with Vertical Tabs, New Sidebar + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Last year saw the Cinnamon desktop receive a much-needed modern makeover, but it seems the visual revamp effort isn’t over yet. Work is underway on a design update for the Cinnamon app menu (applet). Compared to the current Cinnamon Menu, the proposed redesign sticks to a three pane layout but opts to put more information on show, make common folders more immediately accessible, and relocate and restyle session controls. A new user-profile header is also added to the top of the menu to add a lick of personalisation (and, one would imagine, act as shortcut to the users panel in […] You're reading Linux Mint is Redesigning the Cinnamon App Menu, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Skype, one of the best-known video chat/calling apps, is shutting down forever on May 5, Microsoft has announced today. Nothing gold can stay, and neither can VoIP services shorn their cultural zeitgeist it seems. Replacing Skype will be a free version of Microsoft Teams. Active Skype users can log in to the Microsoft Teams app and instantly see their Skype message history, group chats, and contacts without needing to create a(nother) account. Teams will no support ‘telephony’, i.e., Skype’s one remaining USP, after the transition period, meaning you won’t be able to make domestic or international calls to real numbers […] You're reading Skype Hangs Up (For Good) on May 5 – Export Data Before Then!, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
February proved a bumper month for Linux software updates, seeing big release of productivity suites LibreOffice and ONLYOFFICE and, plus a crop of smaller app updates which didn’t merit a full-length article on this blog. Rather than skip over those updates entirely, I thought I’d resurrect my Linux Release Roundup thread1 to curate a monthly (perhaps twice-monthly, if there’s a lot) run-through of smaller software updates I think would still be of most interest to regular readers. For those of us on fixed-release Linux distribution like Ubuntu, such updates may fix a finicky flaw, improve integration, or add a niche […] You're reading Linux App Release Roundup (Feb 2025), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Hot off the back of its recent leadership rejig, Mozilla has announced users of Firefox will soon be subject to a ‘Terms of Use’ policy — a first for the iconic open source web browser. “Although we’ve historically relied on our open source license for Firefox and public commitments to you, we are building in a much different technology landscape today. We want to make these commitments abundantly clear and accessible,” say Mozilla. This official Terms of Use will, Mozilla argues, offers users greater transparency over their “rights and permissions” as they use Firefox to browse the information superhighway1, as […] You're reading Mozilla Introducing ‘Terms of Use’ to Firefox, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The application picker (aka app grid) in GNOME Shell is pretty perfect as it comes, showing launchers for installed apps plus the ability to rearrange them using drag and drop and create custom folders to group apps together. Some folks prefer a little more order. I’ve spotlighted a few Ubuntu app grid tweaks over the years, from one that puts app shortcuts in alphabetical order to ones which restores ‘missing’ shortcuts for apps pinned to the Ubuntu Dock. And now a new app grid helper has appeared – one sure to appeal to those with a preference for keeping things […] You're reading App Grid Wizard Puts GNOME Shell Shortcuts into Folders, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
At one time, Linux dock apps were a plentiful species, with innovative ‘panel painters’ like GNOME Do/Docky to unashamed bling-kings AWN, DockBarX and Cairo Dock. Yet it was the modest Plank which stayed the course and outlived them. Thing is, the Plank dock hasn’t seen any major development effort in years, and though it still works, there’s scope for some modern improvement, surely? One developer thinks so, and they’ve decided to do something about it. Enter, Plank Reloaded. Plank Reloaded: Plank Fork Plank Reloaded is a new fork of the original Plank Linux dock, albeit with a twist: it’s focused […] You're reading Plank Reloaded: Desktop Dock App for Cinnamon, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A set of four cool new window opening and closing animations got added to gaudy GNOME Shell extension Burn My Windows this weekend. A veritable Linux eye-candy essential, Burn My Windows makes it easy to apply a variety of visual effects to Ubuntu when opening and/or closing app windows, dialogs, and modals. Its sole purpose is to make using Linux a bit more entertaining. Burn My Windows v45 is the latest update. It adds support for the upcoming GNOME 48 release (which will ship in Ubuntu 25.04 this April), fine-tunes effect filtering in Preferences, and improves its Incinerate effect with […] You're reading 4 New Effects Added to ‘Burn My Windows’ GNOME Extension, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new alpha release of System76’s emergent Rust-based COSMIC Desktop environment is out with a clutch of important improvements, bug fixes, and new features. Although very much a work-in-progress, unfinished, and lacking polish, COSMIC desktop is already in use as a daily driver by many. The upcoming COSMIC beta release will provide less intrepid users with a more rounded view of the direction the desktop is taking. But the alphas are perfectly useable and a fun way to get an ‘early look’ at how COSMIC is shaping up. Below I recap the more notable (and visible) changes present in COSMIC […] You're reading COSMIC Desktop Alpha 6 Released with Many Changes, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS release is now available to download, albeit one week later than initially planned. Serving as the second point release in the current Ubuntu 24.04 LTS series, Ubuntu 24.04.2 compacts the slew of security, bug, and software updates pushed out to the Noble Numbat since the last point release ISO was spun in August 2024. Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS also brings an updated hardware enablement stack (HWE). This is composed of a newer Linux kernel and updated graphics drivers—Linux 6.11 and Mesa 24.2.8 respectively—back-ported from Ubuntu 24.10. Why do point releases exist? Ubuntu LTS versions are supported for a […] You're reading Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS is Available to Download, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Mozilla Corporation’s president, Mark Surman, today announced plans to tackle what he says are ‘major headwinds’ facing the company’s ability to grow, make money, and remain relevant. “Mozilla’s impact and survival depend on us simultaneously strengthening Firefox AND finding new sources of revenue AND manifesting our mission in fresh ways,” says Surman. To do this, Mozilla plans—no groaning—to ‘diversify’ its efforts. How? It will continue to invest in privacy-respecting advertising; fund, develop and push open-source AI features1 in order to retain ‘product relevance’; and will go all-out on novel new fundraising initiatives to er, get us all to chip in […] You're reading Mozilla Announce Leadership Changes, Plans to ‘Diversify’, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the Mesa graphics library has been released. Mesa 25.0 features Vulkan 1.4 support, which the team bill as the ‘flashiest addition’ in this new development release as it spans Anv (Intel), Asahi (Apple), Lavapipe (software), NVK (NVIDIA), PanVK (Mali), RADV (AMD), and Turnip (Qualcomm). The OpenGL 4.6 API also sees implementation in Mesa 25.0 though the version reported will depend on the hardware driver in use since not all drivers support all features OpenGL 4.6 requires. AMD RDNA4 graphics sees initial support in the RadeonSI Gallium3D (OpenGL) and RADV (Vulkan) drivers is present, the former worked […] You're reading Mesa 25.0 Released with Support for Vulkan 1.4 & OpenGL 4.6, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the Power Profiles Daemon (PPD) was uploaded to the Plucky archives today, and should soon make its way out to Ubuntu 25.04 daily builds —but what’s changed? The power-profiles-daemon is what those of who run Ubuntu (or Linux Mint 22.1, which finally added PPD) interact with when we switch power mode on the fly, be it using a GUI button, setting, or toggle, or the command line. The latest 0.30 release adds a couple of notable changes, though nothing as substantive (to end-users) as the various AMD-targeted tune-ups the previous release delivered. Still, improvements are improvements. Some […] You're reading Power Profiles Daemon 0.30 Preps Support for Linux 6.14, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
This week sees the (belated) release of Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS, the first point release update in the noble series to deliver an updated hardware enablement (HWE) stack. Ubuntu’s HWE backports newer Linux kernel and Mesa GPU drivers to LTS users in an effort to ensure the latest LTS works well with the latest hardware. But it could soon include a lot more. This week, Canonical engineer Shane McKee put forward a proposal to expand Ubuntu HWE updates so they loop in a broader range of graphics driver packages for Intel hardware. —the entire point of the HWE, after all. The […] You're reading Ubuntu LTS Users Could Get Intel GPU Updates More Frequently, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
When you log in to Ubuntu 24.10 an audio clip plays to greet you — a lengthy audio clip that slowly builds to a plinky-plonky crescendo that you—or those around you—may tire of having to sit through! But you can turn Ubuntu’s startup sound off, or swap it for an audio clip more to your tastes. Startup and login sounds were a staple part of Ubuntu during its formative years, but the distro decided to disable them in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS after getting feedback that, actually, they could be a bit annoying. Some 12 years Ubuntu 24.10 added a startup […] You're reading How to Disable (or Change) Login Sound in Ubuntu 24.10, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of Tiling Shell, the flexible window snapping assistant for GNOME Shell, is available. Tiling Shell v16.2 now surfaces nifty ‘Window Suggestions’, a feature introduced in last month’s v16.0 release, when using edge tiling. Edge Tiling (as no doubt you well know) is triggered by dragging a window to the sides of the screen. Ubuntu’s “Enhanced Tiling” feature shows a Tiling Popup when window snapping to make it faster to tile other open apps to the remaining tile spaces without needing to manually drag them to screen edges. Window Suggestions is the same idea, but arguably more useful: […] You're reading Tiling Shell GNOME Extension Expands Window Suggestions, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ever looked at Ubuntu’s default icon theme Yaru and found yourself thinking: “Eh, some of those icons look too big”? —No, can’t say I had either! But it turns out some of the icons are indeed oversized. The Yaru icon theme in Ubuntu uses 4 different shapes for its app, folder and mimetype (file) icons, with a shape picked based on what works best for the design motif being used. Those shapes are: Of those, the most common icon shape used in Yaru is ‘square’ (with rounded corners, but don’t call it a squircle cos that’s so 2014, y’all). It’s […] You're reading Ubuntu’s Icon Theme Fixing Its Not-So-Obvious ‘Bug’, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
If you were expecting Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS to drop tomorrow, I come bearing some bad news: the release has been delayed by a week. Canonical’s Utkarsh Gupta reports that an ‘unfortunate incident’ resulting in some of the newly spun Ubuntu 24.04.2 images (for flavours) being built without the new HWE kernel on board (which is Linux 6.11, for those unaware). Now, including a new kernel version on the ISO is kind of the whole point of the second Ubuntu point release. It has to be there so that the latest long-term support release can boot on and support the latest […] You're reading Ubuntu 24.04.2 Delayed, Won’t Be Released This Week, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
GNOME rolled out a huge revamp to its official website today, and I have to say: it’s a solid improvement over the old one. The official GNOME website has an important role, serving as both showcase and springboard for those looking to learn more about the desktop environment, the app ecosystem, developer documentation, or how to get involved and support the project. Arranging, presenting, and meeting all of those needs on a single landing page—and doing it in an engaging, encouraging way? Difficult to pull off—but GNOME has. The new design looks flashy and modern. It’s more spacious and vibrant, […] You're reading GNOME’s Website Just Got a Major Redesign, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the slick Clapper media player is out with several neat improvements Not newly new, I should say. I hadn’t run a flatpak update in Ubuntu I an age so I only jus noticed an update pending for this nifty little media player. But I figured I’d write about it since it’s been around 10 months since its last major release (save a bug fix release last summer). So what’s new? Well, Clapper 0.8.0 intros a new libpeas-based plugin system in its underlying Clapper library (which other apps can make use of to playback media, as Mastodon client […] You're reading Clapper Media Player Adds New Features, Official Windows Build, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the KDE Plasma desktop environment is out and, as you’d expect, the update is packed with new features, UI tweaks, and performance boosts. KDE Plasma 6.3 is the fourth major update in the KDE Plasma 6.x series and it also marks the one-year anniversary of the KDE Plasma 6.0 debut – something KDE notes in its announcement: One year on, with the teething problems a major new release inevitably brings firmly behind us, Plasma’s developers have worked on fine-tuning, squashing bugs and adding features to Plasma 6 — turning it into the best desktop environment for […] You're reading KDE Plasma 6.3 Released, This is What’s New, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, a free, open-source office suite for Windows, macOS, and Linux, is now available to download. ONLYOFFICE 8.3 brings a bunch of new features and nimble enhancements spread throughout the full suite, which is composed of word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and PDF editing apps. Such as? Well, the headline feature is the ability to open and work with Apple iWork documents (.pages, .numbers, .key) and Hancom Office files (.hwp, .hwpx) . Opening these documents will convert them to OOXML to support editing. It’s not possible to edit the native files themselves, nor export/save edits back […] You're reading ONLYOFFICE 8.3 Released, Now Supports Apple iWork Files, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Finding yourself annoyed at those ‘window is ready’ notifications which pop-up when you open some apps in GNOME Shell on Ubuntu? If so, you can disable them by installing a GNOME Shell extension. Now, notifications are helpful—heck, vital when they inform, alert, or indicate that something requires our immediate attention or actioning. But “app is ready” notifications? I don’t find them anything other than obvious. I’m not amnesic; I know the app is ready – I just opened it! They aren’t predictable either. Some apps show them, others don’t. It depends on the app’s metadata, how fast app initialisation is (you’ll see them more […] You're reading How to Disable ‘App is Ready’ Notifications in Ubuntu, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of Ghostty emerged this week and in this post I run-through the key changes. For those unfamiliar with it, Ghostty is an open-source terminal emulator written in Zig. It offers a “fast, feature-rich, and native” experience — doesn’t claim to be faster, more featured, or go deeper than other native terminals, just offer a competitive combo of the three. Given it does pretty much everything other terminal emulators do, fans faithful to more established terminal emulators won’t find Ghostty‘s presence spooks ’em into switching. It’s a passion project there to be used (or not) depending on need, taste, […] You're reading Ghostty Update Adds Server-Side Decoration Support on Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
LibreOffice 25.2 has been released, this year’s first major update to the leading open-source office software for Windows, macOS, and Linux. As you’d expect, the update delivers a sizeable set of changes spread throughout the productivity suite, including notable UI changes, accessibility improvements, and more important interoperability buffs to support cross-suite workflows. It’s important to remember that open-source software like LibreOffice doesn’t appear out of thin air; it’s made by humans, many unpaid, others paid to work on specific parts only. We all have personal wish-lists of features and changes we want our favourite open-source apps to add, but we […] You're reading LibreOffice 25.2 Released, This is What’s New, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) user? If so, you will be pleased to hear that Ubuntu is now available in Microsoft’s new tar-based distro format — no need to use the sluggish Microsoft Store. Canonical announced the news today, noting that “the new tar-based WSL distro format allows developers and system administrators to distribute, install, and manage Ubuntu WSL instances from tar files without relying on the Microsoft Store.” In not relying on the Microsoft Store for distribution, it’s less hassle for enterprises to roll out (and customise) Ubuntu on WSL at scale as images packaged in using the new […] You're reading Installing Ubuntu on WSL in Windows 11 is Now Easier, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Right on schedule, a new update to the Mozilla Firefox web browser is available for download. Last month’s Firefox 134 release saw the New Tab page layout refreshed for users in the United States, let Linux go hands-on with touch-hold gestures, seeded Ecosia search engine, and fine-tuned the performance of the built-in pop-up blocker. Firefox 135, as is probably intuit, brings an equally sizeable set of changes to the fore including a wider rollout of its new New Tab page layout to all locales where Stories are available: It’s not a massive makeover, granted. But the new layout adjusts the […] You're reading Firefox 135 Brings New Tab Page Tweaks, AI Chatbot Access + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Do you use the official Spotify DEB on Ubuntu (or an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution like Linux Mint)? If so, you’ll be used to receiving updates to the Spotify Linux client direct from the official Spotify APT repo, right alongside all your other DEB-based software. Thing is: if you haven’t checked for updates from the command line recently you might not be aware the that security key used to ‘sign’ packages from the Spotify APT repo stopped working at the end of last year. Annoying, but not catastrophic as it—thankfully—doesn’t stop the Spotify Linux app from working just pollutes terminal output […] You're reading How to Fix Spotify ‘No PubKey’ Error on Ubuntu, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Fans of the Papirus icon theme for Linux desktops will be happy hear a new version is now available to download. Paprius‘s first update in 2025 improves support for KDE Plasma 6 by adding Konversation, KTorrent and RedShift tray icons, KDE and Plasma logo glyphs for use in ‘start menu’ analogues, as well as an assortment of symbolic icons. Retro gaming fans will appreciate an expansion in mime type support in this update. Papirus now includes file icons for ROMs used for emulating ZX Spectrum, SEGA Dreamcast, SEGA Saturn, MSX, and Neo Geo Pocket consoles; and Papirus now uses different […] You're reading Linux Icon Pack Papirus Gets First Update in 8 Months, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
GNOME has announced a change to its default UI and monospace fonts ahead of the upcoming GNOME 48 release — a typographic turnabout that won’t impact Ubuntu users directly, though. Should you feel a sense of deja vu here it’s because GNOME trialled a font switch last year, during development of GNOME 47. Back then, it replaced its home-grown Cantarell font with the popular open-source sans Inter font (trivia: used by Zorin OS). The change was reverted prior to the GNOME 47 due to various UI quirks, coverage issues, and compatibility (thus underlying the importance of testing things out prior […] You're reading GNOME Introduces New UI & Monospace Adwaita Fonts, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Want to find out if the text you’re reading online was written by an real human or spat out by a large language model (LLM) trying to sound like one? Mozilla’s Fakespot Deepfake Detector Firefox add-on may can help give you an indication. Similar to online AI detector tools, the add-on can analyse text (of 32 words or more) to identify patterns, traits, and tells common in AI generated or manipulated text. It uses Mozilla’s proprietary ApolloDFT engine and a set of open-source detection models. But unlike some tools, Mozilla’s Fakespot Deepfake Detector browser extension is free to use, does […] You're reading Try Mozilla’s New AI Detector Add-On for Firefox, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux users hunting for a native client to stream music from TIDAL will want to keep an eye on a promising new open-source app called High Tide. High Tide is an unofficial but native Linux client for the TIDAL music streaming service. It’s written in Python, uses GTK4/libadwaita UI, and leverages official TIDAL APIs for playback. TIDAL, often positioned as the ‘pro-artist music streaming platform’, isn’t as popular as industry titan Spotify (likely because it doesn’t offer a ‘free’ ad-supported tier) but is nonetheless a solid rival to it in terms of features and catalogue breadth. Windows, macOS, Android and […] You're reading High Tide is a Promising New Linux TIDAL Client, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
The Thunderbird email client is making its monthly ‘release channel’ builds the default download starting in March. “We’re excited to announce that starting with the 135.0 release in March 2025, the Thunderbird Release channel will be the default download,” Corey Bryant, manager of Thunderbird Release Operations, shares in an update on the project’s discussion hub. Right now, users who visit the Thunderbird website and hit the giant download get the latest Extended Support Release (ESR) build by default. It gets one major feature update a year plus smaller bug fix and security updates issued in-between. The version of Thunderbird Ubuntu […] You're reading Thunderbird Email Client Moving to Monthly Feature Drops, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu’s key developers have agreed to switch to Matrix as the primary platform for real-time development communications involving the distro. From March, Matrix will replace IRC as the place where critical Ubuntu development conversations, requests, meetings, and other vital chatter must take place. Developers asked to ensure they have a presence on the platform so they are reachable. Only the current #ubuntu-devel and #ubuntu-release Libera IRC channels are moving to Matrix, but other Ubuntu development-related channels can choose to move –officially, given some projects were using Matrix over IRC already. As a result, any major requests to/of the key Ubuntu […] You're reading Confirmed: Ubuntu Dev Discussions Moving to Matrix, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new beta release of open source graphics editing app Pinta is available for testing. Pinta 3.0 (beta) gives fans of this cross-platform raster image editor, which is directly inspired by the iconic Paint.NET Windows app, an early opportunity to try out the changes it brings — and there’s a fair few! The most impactful change in Pinta 3.0 is the most obvious one: it’s revamped UI. Newly ported to GTK4 and libadwaita, Pinta 3.0 swaps a traditional window frame and text-based menu bar for a button-based header bar. Long-time users may might themselves taking a bit of time to […] You're reading Pinta 3.0 Beta Released with New GTK4/Libadwaita UI, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Did you ever own (or covet) one of those e-ink Pebble smartwatches of yore? Well, good news if you did: Google today open-sourced the PebbleOS operating system it used (minus proprietary bits) having acquired Pebble’s assets when buying Fitbit in 2021 (and Fitbit bought Pebble in 2016, but more on that in a mo’.) More open source code in the world is good news, and it means anyone can reuse PebbleOS to build their own smartwatches, or learn from perusing the code how the former Pebble team tackled building a solid real-time OS on such limited hardware. What made Google […] You're reading New Pebble Smartwatch Planned After Google Open Sources the OS, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
A new version of the Varia download manager was released at the weekend – an update described by its developers as probably the “biggest since the first release”. I’ve written about Varia before and, as I said then, I appreciate that the idea of using a dedicated download manager app on the desktop isn’t as obvious today as it was a decade ago. Most people have fast internet connections, meaning even large downloads complete in seconds, and the built-in download tools in web-browsers are sufficient. Plus, we all tend to use streaming media services these days thus negating the need […] You're reading Varia Download Manager Adds yt-dlp Support, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS is scheduled for release on February 13th – in time for Valentines Day, aww. Canonical’s Florent Jacquet shares the date on the Ubuntu Developer mailing list today along with a note to developers to be mindful of their package uploads to noble in the coming weeks. As a result, if you’re using the latest long-term support release you may notice a slightly drop-off in the number of non-essential updates Software Updater bugs you to install between now and February 13. This allow devs to create a snapshot and test it properly. Ubuntu point releases rarely deliver new […] You're reading Ubuntu 24.04.2 Arrives Feb 13 with Linux Kernel 6.11, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
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