OMG! Ubuntu!

Snap Store will be down for maintenance this weekend

Joey Sneddon — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:28:16 +0000

Canonical’s Snap Store will be shutting down for database maintenance at the weekend, meaning users won’t be able to install or update snaps until it’s back online. The planned downtime is expected to last for four hours, starting on Sunday, 5 July 2026 at 22:00 UTC and ending on Monday, 6 July at 02:00 UTC. During the maintenance you will not be able to install or update snaps. If there’s an app you’ve been wanting to try, or your IoT or core device runs automated tasks during the affected window, you’ll want to plan accordingly To make that planning less […]

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Ubuntu 26.04 LTS has fixed its missing video/audio thumbnails

Joey Sneddon — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 21:23:00 +0000

If you installed Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and noticed video and music files weren’t showing image thumbnails in the file manager, a packaging oversight was to blame, not anything you did. It turns out that Ubuntu’s Default install option (aka minimal install) wasn’t pulling in the gst-audio-thumbnailer and gst-video-thumbnailer packages which generate media thumbnails when you open a folder full of compatible files. A metapackage doesn’t contain software itself, just a list of the packages that need to be installed for, in this case, an Ubuntu desktop experience. Confusingly, both thumbnailers were present in the full install’s meta file, so if […]

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Linux App Release Roundup (June 2026)

Joey Sneddon — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 22:35:00 +0000

June was sweltering, but the summer heat didn’t slow down open-source software developers. Last month delivered a wave of app updates, including the release of Firefox 152 with its streamlined settings, HandBrake resolved its Linux WebM handling and the Audacity 4.0 beta made a brand-new design available for public scrutiny (mainly of the “much better” variety). But underneath those highs – yes, I’m determined to make this heat theme work – a quiet simmer of smaller maintenance updates rolled out too… Cine gained Watch History I spotlighted the Cine Linux video player earlier this year. It’s an MPV-based player with […]

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Firefox is adding Vulkan video decoding for Nvidia GPUs

Joey Sneddon — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:10:29 +0000

Firefox is adding hardware-accelerated Vulkan Video decoding, saving Nvidia users on Linux the hassle of manually configuring the nvidia-vaapi-driver package. The change will be included in Firefox 153, out July 21, but it will not be enabled by default – not to start with. Instead, users will be able to flip a pair of preferences in about:config to try it out, with the awareness that there may be hiccups and edge cases (especially on devices with hybrid graphics, mentioned further down). Given that Nvidia GPUs are capable (understatement klaxon), I was surprised to hear that this didn’t already work. Turns out, Firefox’s […]

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Ubuntu’s new ‘Myna’ AI lets you talk instead of type – here’s how

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:27:08 +0000

Ubuntu is working on speech-to-text AI transcription so you can talk to type. It's powered by project Myna. Here's how it'll work and why it's adding it.

You're reading Ubuntu’s new ‘Myna’ AI lets you talk instead of type – here’s how, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

This Flatpak runs a 30-year old version of GIMP – pre-GTK

Joey Sneddon — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 22:10:00 +0000

Every wondered what famed FOSS image editor GIMP was like in 1996? Well, now you can find out. Developer balooii has packaged GIMP 0.54 into a Flatpak that runs on modern 64-bit Linux desktops with Wayland. It’s apparently the earliest version of the app with the source code still available to build. This is not not an official GIMP effort, but a community effort. It’s also something of a work-in-progress – of an ancient work-in-progress – with the maintainer promising they’ll share more era-specific plugins and tutorials on using this ancient build in time. Before you skip to the install […]

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Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 2 is out (with a ‘breaking change’)

Joey Sneddon — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:52:49 +0000

Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 2 is available to download, the second of four snapshots planned for the ‘Stonking Stingray’ development cycle ahead of a stable release in October. As with the first snapshot, there’s not a lot “new” stuff to see or test out, so unless you’re a developer or an avid bug hunter there’s little reason to rush off and try it. Canonical’s Utkarsh Gupta, announcing the release on Ubuntu’s developer mailing list, warns of a “breaking change” – don’t panic: it’s not in the image itself, but the URL it’s accessed from. Over the past few weeks the Ubuntu […]

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Fed up with complex note taking apps? Try Whisp for Linux

Joey Sneddon — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 21:10:00 +0000

Whisp is a Linux notes app with a difference. A gesture-driven GTK4/libadwaita UI offering a scratchpad for note taking. Inspired by Antinote for macOS.

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Ubuntu brings Livepatch to arm64 for rebootless kernel updates

Joey Sneddon — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 22:10:00 +0000

Canonical has brought Livepatch to Arm64 devices for the first time, allowing Ubuntu systems on Arm hardware to apply critical kernel security patches without a full reboot. Livepatch is one of Ubuntu’s best hidden security features – it’s not enabled by default, requires Ubuntu Pro – as it allows kernel security updates to be applied in memory while your system is running. Normally, a restart is needed. Perfect if you’re a bit lazy running a task or workload you don’t want interrupted. Livepatch is now available on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Ubuntu Core 26 running on Arm64 devices for the first time […]

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Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

Joey Sneddon — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:24:41 +0000

Open-hardware manufacturer Pine64 has launched a $50 smart speaker that runs open-source software on a RISC-V chip. PineVoice (previously known as PineVox) is built around a Bouffalo Lab BL606P RISC-V SoC with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and Zigbee radio interfaces. It’s equipped with dual microphone array and speaker with support for ‘local wake word detection’, and top-mounted buttons allow you to mute (with LED indicator), start/stop and adjust volume. The factory-shipped firmware is built on Alibaba’s open-source YoC platform and runs the Wyoming Satellite protocol, which turns the device into a local microphone and speaker for a self-hosted, Linux-based Home […]

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COSMIC desktop update adds new system monitor app

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:05:04 +0000

A new update to System76’s COSMIC desktop is now rolling out with a new system monitoring tool and a fresh set of fixes and fine-tuning. COSMIC Epoch 1.1.0 also sees the developers behind the Rust-based desktop opting to “[increment] the minor version regularly in order to allow for mid-release patch versions if necessary”. The biggest new feature is COSMIC Monitor, a native system monitoring tool built using the same Iced toolkit and widget set the rest of the desktop’s core apps are built in. It will replace the GTK-based GNOME System Monitor in Pop!_OS 24.04, but users can (obviously) continue […]

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Focus blur, nightlight added to Miracle-wm desktop

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:32:00 +0000

A new version of miracle-wm, the Wayland compositor built on Mir with an i3/Sway style tiling window manager, has been released. Developer Matthew Kosarek, a Canonical engineer developing this keyboard-driven UX in his free time, says the new v0.10.0 release sees the plugin system introduced in the April 2026 release “getting better and better everyday”. Plugins can now be used to set a blur effect on individual unfocused windows using a two-pass separable Gaussian blur shader. This helps set a visible cue that might help you focus more. A new nightlight plugin uses an output shader capability to tint the screen […]

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Control AirPods & Galaxy Buds on Ubuntu with ‘BudsLink’

Joey Sneddon — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 19:28:14 +0000

BudsLink is a Linux app giving you more control over Bluetooth earbuds from the likes of Apple, Sony, Samsung and Nothing – battery levels, active noise cancellation (ANC) and more, all without needing to use a mobile app. Most Bluetooth audio devices ‘just work’ on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions for listening to audio, but that’s about it. Pair AirPods or Galaxy Buds with your desktop and you’ll find you can’t adjust all of the on-device features you paid for. BudsLink is a GTK4/libadwaita app which can. It lets you control earbud features on your Linux desktop, no need to […]

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Ubuntu flavours now need a beta release to ship

Joey Sneddon — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:00:18 +0000

Ubuntu has announced an ‘important policy update’, making beta releases mandatory for all Ubuntu flavours, no exceptions. Most flavours already hit the beta milestone every six months without issue. But until now a flavour that missed the deadline could still be granted a one-off exception. During the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS cycle, that’s what happened with Ubuntu Kylin, the Chinese-orientated spin that uses the UKUI desktop. It missed the Beta window but still made the final release. That won’t happen again. To get an official stable release, a flavour now must have a beta release out the same time as every […]

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Audacity 4.0 beta lets you test its new (nicer) Qt interface

Joey Sneddon — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 22:54:00 +0000

Audacity 4’s first public beta arrived this month with the biggest design change the iconic open-source audio editor has seen in decades. The audio editor’s interface, built on wxWidgets since the project began, now runs in Qt. However, the audio engine which handles file I/O, project storage and the built-in effects, uses the older codebase, wired up to the new frontend via a module called au3wrap. In a sense, Audacity 4 is a new look but it sits atop the same core engine codebase (albeit tightened and cleaned up). The Github changelog frames it as “ground-up rewrite” using Qt but […]

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Firefox 152 debuts with new-look Settings, odd way to mute tabs

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 15:35:45 +0000

Mozilla has released Firefox 152 with revamped Settings and faster ways to share web content – plus, a peculiar way to mute noisy tabs. The update is available from today (15 June, 2026) on Windows, macOS and Linux, as well as for Android and iOS (mobile versions have different features and are not covered in this post). Firefox 152’s headline change is the revamped Settings page. We knew this was coming as Mozilla’s been teasing it for over a year. The company says the new look offers “streamlined organisation, clearer groupings, and improved navigation for easier customisation”. Since many users find […]

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KDE Plasma 6.7 release brings per-monitor desktops, revives Oxygen

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:43:31 +0000

KDE Plasma 6.7 has been released, and it brings a feature many of its users have been requesting for decades: independent per-screen virtual desktops. The latest stable update also sees a classic KDE theme revived, supports simultaneous HDR and ICC profiles and packs in an assortment of usability, UI and performance tweaks. This release is dedicated to Eric Laffoon, a longtime KDE supporter who passed away in May 2026. Users of the Ubuntu-based KDE Neon and rolling-release distributions like Arch will be able to install Plasma 6.7 in the coming days. Kubuntu 26.04 LTS users should check the Kubuntu Backports […]

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Firefox’s free VPN lifts data limit, offers 28 server locations

Joey Sneddon — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:05:18 +0000

You can now use Firefox’s free built-in VPN without a monthly data limit – but only until August 31, 2026. Mozilla is also temporarily expanding the list of VPN server locations available to proxy your browsing traffic via, up from the current set of 5 locations to a more generous 28. The extra server locations during the promotion: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Thailand. The Firefox 151 release in May added the option to select from a list of VPN servers (though it’s […]

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