A new version of HandBrake, the open-source and cross-platform media conversion tool, is available to download. HandBrake 1.11.2 is a maintenance update in the current 1.11.x stable release, which was released in March 2026 and added DNxHR and ProRes encoder support, and an AMD VCN AV1 10-bit encoder compatible with the company’s 9000 series GPUs and newer. This update is focused on fixes and finesse. A pair of bugs affecting 2-pass operations are resolved: a crash during 2-pass lossless x265 encodes, and a memory leak that occurred during 2-pass MPEG-4, MPEG-2, VP9 and FFV1 encodes. On Linux, HandBrake adds WebM […]
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May 2026 delivered a sizeable set of Linux software updates, including the set I’ve rounded up for your reading pleasure in this post. The month also saw a buffet of big browser updates, including Firefox 151 with new-look new tab page, Vivaldi 8.0 with a new-look generally and a new public beta of Kagi’s Orion. Elsewhere, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS support was added to VMware Workstation (and Fusion for macOS), while open-source system cleaner BleachBit debuted a TUI for interactive command-line based spring cleaning. Below, I run through a crop of other Linux app releases that landed in May and caught my eye. […]
A new version of ONLYOFFICE, the open-source productivity suite, is out with a small set of improvements. The new release lands a couple of months after ONLYOFFICE suspended its eight-year Nextcloud partnership over Euro-Office, a fork by a European consortium that ONLYOFFICE says violates its AGPLv3 licence terms. Totally unrelated (yes, sarcasm), ONLYOFFICE 9.4 updates its licensing. Forks are still permitted but ‘additional terms’ demand that forks credit ONLYOFFICE as the original developer in a ‘prominently visible’ part of the UI. However, the terms also state that forks aren’t allowed to use ONLYOFFICE’s trademark without permission. The AGPLv3 allows licence […]
If you haven’t check in with Ubuntu’s app prompting feature for a while, there’s more reason to do so in the latest release. Recent improvements to the snap-focused security feature, which Canonical’s Oliver Calder has shared an update on, aims to “empower users” by letting them grant apps system and hardware access at runtime rather than retrospectively. Android or iOS use similar prompts, showing screen modals asking if users if they want to “allow Acme App to access the camera” with options to deny or “only while using the app”. Nifty stuff on mobile, but on a desktop? Well, Canonical […]
April 2026 has been and gone, but not before delivering an array of Linux software updates, including new versions of popular FOSS video editor Kdenlive and Oracle’s virtualisation offering VirtualBox. We also got Firefox 150 with GTK emoji picker support and split tab improvements, and a modest bug fix update to the GIMP image editor, albeit resolving an annoying on-canvas text tool quirk. Below, I list other notable Linux app releases to arrive in April. While these didn’t merit a dedicated article (hey, it was a busy month with the release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS), they still brought nifty new […]
Firefox 150 is released this week with an enhanced Split View features, multi-tab sharing and a clutch of welcome PDF editor improvements. Split View debuted in Firefox 149 last month, letting you easily view two web-pages side-by-side in a single tab (no more juggling windows). In Firefox 150, you can right-click a link on a web page and choose Open Link in Split View to, well, do precisely that. Firefox’s Split View feature now includes an option to Reverse Tabs in the context menu (three dots at the bottom of a focused split). And when creating a new Split View without a […]
Bug fixes arrive in GIMP 3.2.4, the latest maintenance update for the current 3.2.x stable series. Assorted improvements made since GIMP 3.2.2 dropped in March include a variety of layer workflow tweaks, like ensuring certain actions, like ‘Layers to Image Size’ and ‘Resize Layer to Selection’ only on raster layers (not vector, linked or text layers). Similarly, the team says they “caught more cases where tools would accidentally rasterize link, text, and vector layers”. A layer naming issue broke what GIMP devs refer to as “the principle of least surprise”, so that’s been resolved. In earlier builds opening an XCF […]
Installing Opera GX on Linux is now easier, with official packages available on the Canonical Snap Store and Flathub. Opera GX made its debut Linux release in March 2026, with the gaming-centric web browser porting over many of the novel features that have helped to make it a modest hit on Windows and macOS. That includes CPU, RAM and network controls provided, background sounds, themes and eye-candy like web shaders. A ‘Hot Tabs Killer’ feature automatically nukes tabs which use excessive resources (other browsers have similar features with more tactile names like ‘tab sleep’). You can install Opera GX on […]
The Ghostty terminal is now packaged in the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS repositories – meaning for those on the new long-term support release, it’s only an apt install away. Ghostty is a fast, open-source terminal emulator for macOS and Linux (Windows support is seemingly trapped between planes), made by Mitchell Hashimoto. It’s picked up millions of users since its launch in December 2024, and has been available on Ubuntu via a community-maintained PPA, DEB and Snap packages for a while. This is its first appearance in the Ubuntu repos proper. What makes Ghostty different? “Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform […]
March 2026 meted out a sizeable set of Linux software releases, including updates to FOSS stalwarts GIMP, digiKam, Krita and Blender. Major new releases were covered with dedicated articles, including Firefox 149 with free built-in VPN, the ‘biggest ever release’ of OpenShot video editor, the new GIMP 3.2.0 release, a bump to terminal tool Ghostty 1.3 and the Opera GX for Linux launch. A busy month, but those weren’t the only app updates of note. Below, I run through other releases made in March. While these didn’t get dedicated articles at the time, they offer new features, fixes or changes […]
Several Intel NPU fixes land in the latest update to Resources, which Ubuntu is making the default system monitor in 26.04 LTS. Resources is a GTK4/libadwaita tool that shows more system usage, processes and hardware details than GNOME System Monitor, which it is replacing as Ubuntu’s default in the new LTS. The Resources v1.10 release at the start of February added (among other changes) support for AMD Neural Processing Units (NPUs). The app has supported usage for Intel NPUs since its v1.7.x release in late 2024. The v1.10.2 changelog resolves what is described as “implausible” usage values in Intel NPU […]
If you take handwritten notes on Linux, chances are Xournal++ is something you’ve tried as its solid feature set and stylus support has earned it a loyal following amongst those who’d rather annotate PDFs or sketch equations than type. One criticism that follows it around is its interface. It’s rather pointer-led; lots of menus, buttons and tiny hit targets in toolbars. It doesn’t prevent you from doing what you opened the app to do – write, draw, scrawl and markup – but it’s not ideal. Well, that’s what a new tablet mode toolbar configuration recently merged in Xournal++‘s development builds […]
Is the classic image meme dead, or buried under an avalanche of AI slop? Memerist, a new(ish) native meme generator for Linux, emerged on Flathub recently to help dig them out. Memerist is a native (GTK4/libadwaita) app for Linux desktop. It is technically an image editor with a focused set of features, geared to those who want a convenient, local tool to quickly create and share popular memes. While the primary use case is for making memes, Memerist will open any image file. You can use it to add text and simple effects to anything – pursuit of a LOL […]
February 2026 delivered a fresh batch of Linux app releases, with updates to Ardour, Lutris and Bazaar among the many that filtered out during the month. I covered some of the month’s biggest releases with full-length features, including Firefox 148’s new AI ‘kill switch’, the ONLYOFFICE 9.3 and LibreOffice 26.2 productivity suite updates, and Linux weather app Typhoon’s Qt 6 port. But they weren’t the only software updates to slip out. Below, I run through a fleet of other app updates February played host to. Some updates were of the modest maintenance variety, while others saw more substantial changelogs. Ardour’s […]
The forecast is looking Qt for fans of open-source weather app Typhoon, the latest update to which swaps its creaking GTK3 backend for a lithe Qt 6 one. What’s interesting about this change in Typhoon 1.7.x is that it doesn’t impact the UI in any noticeable way. The app still uses a colourful, borderless window with optional transparency, and conveys weather forecast data via stark white text and glyphs. Archisman Panigrahi, Typhoon’s developer, says the Qt port was needed since GTK3 is being deprecated, but that rewriting the app in GTK4 was a non-starter given it ‘does not play well […]
The Firefox 148 update sees its stable release today, bringing with it a much-request ‘AI kill switch’ to easily disable all AI-powered features within the browser. Mozilla has said future updates to the browser will not re-enable AI features once disabled. Given that Mozilla now measures its success by how much revenue it makes from AI features in its products, Firefox included, that’s a reassuring stance. To disable AI features in Firefox go to Settings > AI Controls. Slide the ‘Block AI Enhancements’ toggle to turn off ChatGPT and other chatbots in the sidebar, AI link previews, the (supposedly) smart […]
The world isn’t short on keyboard-based Linux launchers. Albert, Ulauncher, rofi and GNOME Do (if you’re old enough to remember that one) are among those I’ve written about in the past. Rudra is a new spin on this old staple – albeit without the extensibility dedicated quick launchers provide. What’s different here is that it’s implemented as a GNOME Shell extension, not a standalone app. The developer of Rudra, Nark Agni, describes it as a “lightning-fast, keyboard-centric launcher […] designed for power users”. Though inspired by Mac apps like Alfred and Raycast, it is far less capable than those. To […]