OMG! Ubuntu!

Ubuntu cloud images dropped another package by accident

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 01:53:41 +0000

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 ‘randomness’ during boot, it rejigged the dependency chain in the image ‘seed’. Packages that got pulled in by it, no longer were. While xxd wasn’t present on the initial set of image, it was still available to install from the Ubuntu’s archive. Canonical has […]

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Wallpapi gives you a cooler way to change wallpaper on GNOME

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:28:08 +0000

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. When you spot the drape you want, you hit Enter to set it as the desktop background. Choices are scheme-aware. If a light or dark variant is available, Wallpapi will set the correct version of an image per your system dark mode preference. […]

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Sublime Text gains new C# highlighter, file icon themes

Joey Sneddon — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:51:38 +0000

A new version of Sublime Text is out – the first major update to the cross-platform (and closed-source) text editor since May 2025. Sublime Text v4213 makes Python 3.14 the default (replacing v3.8). The editor still ships Python 3.3 – ancient as it is – but disabled by default. It will be removed in a future update, but sticks around a little longer incase of plugin compatibility issues. New features in this update includes a rewritten C# syntax highlighter, alongside more general, if unspecified, ‘improvements’ to syntax highlighting. Sublime Text also introduces support for file icon themes. These let users […]

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GNOME saves blushes by replacing ‘inappropriate’ screenshot sound

Joey Sneddon — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 13:39:03 +0000

Say goodbye to people thinking you’re a creep next time you take a desktop screenshot in a public space, as GNOME 51 has changed the sound effect that plays when you do. For a while now, when you screen grab your desktop or an app window, the accompanying sound effect is a camera shutter, like the one you hear when you take a photo on a smartphone. Cute in the privacy of your own home, but less cute in a public setting like an office or café. The sound is the issue: how are people to know you’re taking desktop […]

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Steam snap using core26 is now available for testing

Joey Sneddon — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 20:01:00 +0000

Ubuntu gamers can help test a new version of Canonical’s Steam snap that uses a core26 base and an updated Mesa graphics driver stack. A new testing channel sees the Steam snap’s underlying base runtime bumped to a version based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, paired with a matching gaming-graphics-core26 content snap providing a newer set of GPU drivers – and potentially, better performance. Users can opt in by running snap refresh steam --channel stable/core26 from the terminal, and test by doing what they’d normally do in Steam: install and play games, adjust settings, and so on. Because the Steam snap uses its […]

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Ubuntu 26.10 stops low memory from killing your desktop session

Joey Sneddon — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 17:55:21 +0000

Ubuntu 26.10 changes how the system choose which processes are killed when memory runs low, making a rogue browser tab is less likely to punt you back to the login screen. When your system runs out of memory, the kernel’s out-of-memory (OOM) killer kicks in, terminating processes to recover some. The issue is that doesn’t always kill the right things. By default, many apps and critical desktop services share the same priority score. When the OOM killer is choosing its victim target, it looks at their OOM scores, not “what’s using the most memory”. Firefox and GNOME Shell, for example, […]

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Convey is a GTK4/libadwaita fork of Linux email app Geary

Joey Sneddon — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 01:31:44 +0000

Convey is a new Linux email client based on the code of Geary, remade with a GTK4/libadwaita UI and support for Microsoft 365 accounts.

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Laser is a new, modern CD ripper for Linux

Joey Sneddon — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 03:08:49 +0000

Under my bed is a giant box of CDs that I’ve been meaning to rip for years. Some aren’t on Spotify, some are, but not the right version and one is by an artist I’m half convinced is a folk memory – perhaps the Mandela effect in action. Laser is a new GTK4/libadwatia CD ripping application for Linux that’s coaxed me into getting on with the job. It’s not just old timers who may have need. CD sales in the UK are booming as younger buyers put off by the gentrified price of vinyl turn to cheaper physical formats. A […]

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Calibre ebook manager adds AI-powered writing game

Joey Sneddon — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:35:41 +0000

The latest update to Calibre, the popular open-source ebook manager, features an AI-powered writing game. Calibre v9.15’s “Create Your Own Adventure” mode, per the release notes, lets you build a fictional world and hand control of it to an AI who will manage it in real time based on your responses. A bit like old text-based RPGs, I guess. The changelog notes, with obvious understatement, that the feature is “a little different” from Calibre’s usual fare, adding it began as a way for developers to test the tool’s AI backend before developing into “something fun to use”. Like all AI […]

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Microsoft’s open-source CLI text editor adds syntax highlighting

Joey Sneddon — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 22:46:02 +0000

Edit, Microsoft’s open-source command-line text editor, added syntax highlighting, improved regex handling in Find & Replace and new editing shortcuts in its v2.0.0 update. Microsoft open-sourced Edit last year. It’s a small, cross-platform text editor with VS Code-style keybindings, mouse support, handles LF and CRLF line endings and lets you open multiple file. The clean terminal user interface (TUI) is super easy to use. The Edit v2.0.0 release came out earlier this year, but the unofficial Linux snap package (msedit, maintained by Canonical’s Aaron Prisk) only updated on 14 September – that update is how I heard a new version […]

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Ubuntu 26.10 snapshot 4 released ahead of next week’s beta

Joey Sneddon — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:46:17 +0000

In the mood for testing? The fourth monthly snapshot of Ubuntu 26.10 is now available for download. It’s unusual for Ubuntu to produce a snapshot the same month a beta release is due, and this is also the second snapshot published this month: Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 3 arrived in early September. Strange times with the Stonking Stingray! “These should be very close to what the Beta candidates will look like next week, so don’t shy away from testing them”, said Canonical’s Utkarsh Gupta in the mailing list announcement. Since Snapshot 3, more package updates have been updated: the GNOME 51 […]

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Miracle-wm v0.11 gains a fancy new overview mode

Joey Sneddon — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:48:56 +0000

Miracle-wm v0.11.0 gains a fancy new overview mode inspired by GNOME Shell. For those unfamiliar with miracle-wm, it’s a tiling window manager built around the Wayland compositor Mir, created to be a “hackable and flashy” alternative to other tiling WMs, like hyprland and sway. The overview mode gives users an easy way to select windows and workspaces. One tap of the action key (configured in the config file) enters a window selector, while a double tap of the action key will enter a workspace selector. Once open, windows and workspaces can be navigated using keyboard shortcuts, mouse scroll wheel or […]

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GNOME 51 released with passkey login and smoother UX

Joey Sneddon — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:32:34 +0000

GNOME 51 is out, bringing FIDO2 passkey login, a Reduced Motion option and frame scheduling changes that make UI animations and scrolling feel smoother. Core apps pick up improvements too. The desktop Maps app gains offline area downloads and live transit data, Papers now lets you add visual signatures and Nautilus speeds up the loading of large folders. While this is a more modest release than we’ve become accustomed to – some planned changes, like a GTK4 port of Disks and a slider to change touchpad scroll speed, didn’t make it in – there is still plenty to look out […]

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Orion for Linux beta update lets you customise the toolbar

Joey Sneddon — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 15:01:50 +0000

A new beta of Orion for Linux, the native WebKitGTK port of Kagi’s iOS and Mac web browser, is out. Orion Beta v0.4.3 continues to flesh out the browser’s feature set to reach parity with its Apple kin. You can now customise the toolbar. A context menu option was present in earlier beta builds but opened a button picker that wasn’t functional – now it is. Drag items out of the ‘current toolbar’ area on the palette to remove them, or drag ones from the palette to the top block to add them. You can re-order buttons by dragging too. […]

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Firefox 156 reduces CPU usage when viewing JPGs

Joey Sneddon — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 22:13:22 +0000

Firefox 156 is out with faster start-up times for its built-in PDF viewer and lower CPU usage when viewing large JPEG images. As you browse the web you (pretty much always) see images smaller than their native resolution. To wit, if I embed a 4K JPEG in this post, for example, you don’t see it at full size: it’s downscaled to fit on the page. Same amount of pixel data, but squeezed by CSS. In Firefox 156, the browser now uses libjpeg-turbo’s IDCT scaling to reduce images during decoding, rather than loading a full-size image into memory and then shrinking […]

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Conflux icon set gives a modern look to Linux desktops

Joey Sneddon — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:29:48 +0000

Conflux is a new Linux icon set that aims to be both beautiful but neutral – I think it succeeds at both. The author of Conflux said they struggled to find a “modern-looking” icon pack for their desktop, deigning many as overly stylistic, outdated or, in some cases, poorly designed. Another impetus to solve was the way un-themed icons look. “Conflux should blend seamlessly into your system”, reads the Github page, “so that you don’t even notice you’re using an icon theme.” It’s not flat, block colours and simplistic – which is refreshing. It won’t be for everyone, though. Few […]

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Shotwell 33 goes stable with its long-awaited GTK4 port

Joey Sneddon — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:20:25 +0000

Shotwell 33 is out, the first stable version of the photo manager for GNOME desktops to use GTK4. A GTK4 port of Shotwell has been in the works since 2025. It’s the first big toolkit port the image tool has since since it migrated to GTK3 in 2012 (v0.12.0). Yet despite the leap, the user-facing result is just a plain port; it’s not as visually transformative as gThumb’s GTK4/libadwaita port (which looks like an entirely new app) A more substantive visual revamp using GTK4/libadwaita may follow. For now, Shotwell 33 looks like Shotwell v32 – the benefit is more in […]

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Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

Joey Sneddon — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 16:39:11 +0000

Ubuntu 26.10 completes the distro’s move to Rust-based core utilities, with the commands previously held back due to security issues now migrated to memory-safe versions. cp, mv and rm were held back on their GNU versions in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS due to a crop of TOCTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) issues that needed to be fixed in the uutils versions. With those issues resolved upstream, Ubuntu 26.10 finishes the job. The ‘Stonking Stingray’ ships a full set of Rust core utilities, which encompasses common command-line tools like ls, cat, chmod and du. Canonical donates €40k a year to help fund work on Rust software Canonical’s engineers began ‘oxidising’ the distro – replacing foundational […]

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