OMG! Ubuntu!
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VLC just made its ‘biggest security release ever’
VLC 3.0.24 is out, billed as the video player’s ‘biggest security release ever’ with more than 130 fixes across the app and its bundled libraries. VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf says the bulk of security flaws patched by the update are “hard to exploit in practice”, e.g., out-of-bounds reads and writes, integer overflow, use-after-free issues, etc…
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Ubuntu 26.04 upgrades from 24.04 are now enabled
It’s taken longer than expected, but users can now upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 from 24.04 directly, without command-line workarounds. Canonical has finally flipped the switch on in-place upgrades for LTS systems. A notification will let users know that a new LTS is available, which can be actioned right away, ignored or “remind me later”‘d. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS was…
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Destroy Any Website is a browser game that does what it says
Destroy Any Website is a browser-based run-and-gun that lets you run amok on any public-facing website – with an array of destructive weapons. You take command of a character and run, jump and jetpack around website site elements using traditional WASD controls, taking aim with your mouse to score points by blasting your chosen online target to literal tiny…
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gThumb 4.0 has been released, and it looks like a brand new app
gThumb’s big GTK4 and Vala rewrite is officially stable and available for download. I previewed the gThumb 4.0 alpha back in May, remarking on how much of a difference the UI refresh makes to the app – the long-serving photo manager looks like an entirely new app. Every part of gThumb’s interface benefits from the port to GTK4/libadwaita, backend…
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What’s your Ubuntu 27.04 codename prediction?
I’ve only just gotten used to typing the Ubuntu 26.10 ‘Stonking Stingray’ codename carefully – autocorrect always thinks I mean stinking – yet I’m already thinking about what the next release will be called. We know Ubuntu 27.04 will be a T.T. release since it follows an S, and tradition dictates the codename is made up of an adjective and an animal (real…
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Firefox 157 released with ‘biggest visual refresh in years’
A new look Firefox 157 has arrived with what Mozilla describe as the browser’s “biggest visual refresh in years”. The latest stable update uses the new Nova theme by default. The ‘modernised’ look makes core UI elements rounder and more colourful as subtle pastel gradients tint the window chrome on Windows, macOS and – albeit opt-in there – Linux. We got…
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Give Linux Mint a dramatic makeover with this theme pack
The refrain goes that ‘Linux Mint looks dated’, yet the Cinnamon desktop is highly customisable – something a new transformation pack shows to eye-catching effect. Silent Horizon is a Linux Mint makeover script that installs a set of customdesklets, panel applets, a wallpaper, Plank dock theme and minor Cinnamon layout tweaks. It’s the work of…
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Era, the new Rust-based calendar for GNOME, is now in beta
Era is a new Rust-based calendar app for GNOME that describes itself as “beautiful and performant”. And you don’t need to schedule a date to try it; a beta release is available to install from Flathub. At first glance, Era looks like GNOME’s Calendar (which got a big update in the GNOME 51, notably in ways you feel rather than see). But then, how could it…
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Banshee music player is back from the dead (well, kinda)
A revived Banshee music player is now available on the Snap store, making it possible to use it on modern Linux desktops decades after its last stable release. Packaged by Alan Pope (aka popey), this new Banshee snap lets you run the old Banshee 2.6.2 release – the final stable one from 2014 – on modern Linux desktops. Not merely a code repack; the Snap…
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Ubuntu 26.10 adds Windows-style snap layouts
Ubuntu 26.10 offers a new way to tile your apps, with a layout picker sliding in from the top of the screen when you move a window. This “dropzone” concept for quick tiling will be familiar to users of Windows 11 users or those who’ve tried the Tiling Shell extension for GNOME Shell – they do, broadly, the same thing. When you drag a window a layout picker…
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Ubuntu 26.10 beta released delayed by a week
The Ubuntu 26.10 beta, which had been due on 24 September, has been pushed back to 1 October. Canonical’s Matthieu Clemenceau, announcing the delay, said “unforeseen infrastructure issues” require pushing the release back by one week. The exact issue isn’t detailed, but Clemenceau did add that the company expects to resolve the cause shortly and that it…
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You can try Ubuntu’s new Myna AI dictation tool – here’s how
Ubuntu’s AI-powered dictation tool Myna isn’t officially ready to test, but if you’re eager to give it ago, you can do so – I show how in this post. Canonical recently added the Myna orchestrator snap and speech-recognition AI models to the Snap Store, and made a new desktop Myna Settings tool available to install from a PPA. Ubuntu 26.10 also comes with…
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Ubuntu speeds up kernel security updates because of AI
Ubuntu kernel security updates will arrive on a near-weekly basis, as Canonical tries to keep pace with an 'explosion' of issues being detected through AI. You're reading Ubuntu speeds up kernel security updates because of AI , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
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Ex-Microsoft dev builds a new task manager for Linux
TMOG is a cross-platform task manager for Windows, macOS and Linux created by ex-Microsoft developer Dave Plummer, who created Windows' first one. You're reading Ex-Microsoft dev builds a new task manager for Linux , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
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OpenShot is now officially available as a Snap
An official snap of OpenShot, the open-source video editor, is available on the Snap Store. Users can install it from App Center, or the command line. You're reading OpenShot is now officially available as a Snap , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
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Ubuntu wiki gets its first overhaul in 16 years
An all-new Ubuntu Wiki has gone live, giving the information hub its first substantive overhaul since 2010. The updated wiki now runs on MediaWiki, which adds a slate of modern backend and frontend features readers and editors alike will appreciate, e.g., search auto-suggest, mobile-friendly adaptations, light/dark mode, a WYSIWYG editor and more. Security…
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Obscura VPN now offers a desktop app for Linux
Obscura VPN has launched a native Linux app, giving desktop users an easier way to access it (without wrangling Wireguard configuration files). Linux isn’t short of VPN providers, but Obscura, founded by former Bitcoin Core contributor Carl Dong, has a different pitch to most. Rather than your traffic being routed through a single provider, Obscura VPN uses…
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Ubuntu’s minimal cloud images lost xxd – by accident
Another package went missing from Ubuntu 26.04 LTS’s minimal cloud images, this time xxd , a CLI tool for viewing files as hexadecimals. It’s the second time this has happened, following the accidental removal of curl I reported on in August. Both packages vanished for the same reason. When Canonical dropped the pollinate tool, which was used to generate…
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Wallpapi gives you a cooler way to change wallpaper on GNOME
Wallpapi is an Omarchy-inspired wallpaper switcher for GNOME desktops that offers a slicker. When installed, it lets you “browse a folder of wallpapers as a full-screen carousel of parallelogram cards”. As you page through available options, the focused image is previewed as your wallpaper in the background, so you can see it larger, which is pretty cool…