Canonical’s engineers have announced the fourth and final monthly snapshot of Ubuntu 26.04, ahead of next month’s all important beta release. Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 4, like all other monthly snapshots, not a blessed build intended for mainstream usage. It’s a “throwaway artifact” that enables the distro’s engineers to fine-tune and hone a new automated build system. Compared to the January release of snapshot 3, there’s more ‘of note’ packed inside of this one, like the Linux 6.19 kernel and more GNOME 50 beta components (Mutter, Files, Settings), though the new Showtime video player is not included – but is coming. […]
You're reading Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 4 is now available to download, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 26.04 will show asterisks when you type your sudo password, as Canonical adds a patch to its Rust-based sudo-rs. Here's what changed and why.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 'Resolute Raccoon' has a new default wallpaper. It keeps the purple gradient but drops the sharp geometric angles. Download a high-res copy.
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 […]
Showtime video player looks set to make it into Ubuntu 26.04 LTS after a package update fixed a dependency issue that was blocking its inclusion. Totem's days are numbered.
Add animated media controls to your GNOME panel or dock with Dynamic Music Pill, a slick GNOME Shell extension showing album art, waveforms and track info.
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 […]
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS ‘Resolute Raccoon’ will use OpenJDK 25 as its default Java version. An expected change as OpenJDK 25 is a long-term support release, as Ubuntu 26.04 is, the bump brings various feature and performance improvements to developers over OpenJDK 21, the default version used in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS through 25.10. On Ubuntu, Java isn’t installed out of the box, but when you install default-jdk or default-jre (directly or indirectly as a dependency needed by other software) those meta-packages point to whichever OpenJDK version Canonical has blessed as current. In Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, that will be OpenJDK 25. Version 25 of OpenJDK, the […]
Ghostty's most-thumbed feature request is finally being answered. Yup, scrollbar support is finally coming in Ghostty 1.3 for Linux and macOS.
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 […]
BleachBit 5.1.0 beta is out with a new cookie manager, expert mode to prevent accidental data loss, new browser support, and fixes for Linux users.
KDE Plasma 6.6 release lets you extract text from screenshots, control app volume from the taskbar, save custom themes and fixes the 60Hz animation cap.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS will split its 600MB linux-firmware package into 17 vendor-specific packages to reduce bandwidth and download sizes of firmware updates.
Download the official Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 'Resolute Raccoon' mascot as an SVG vector file to use in your custom wallpapers and personalised Ubuntu artwork.
Linux Mint 23 will expand its System Administration tool (mintsysadm) with a new Users section, enabling post-install home encryption and more.
Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS is now available to download. This fourth point release brings the Linux 6.17 HWE kernel and Mesa 25.2 graphics stack for better hardware support.
Linux Mint developers are considering ending the distro’s six‑month release cycle, a change that could mean fewer updates and a slower release pace.
CrossOver 26 is out with new Windows app and game compatibility, Wine 11.0 and NYSync support to make running Windows software on Linux even smoother.
Ubuntu 26.04 drops the 'Software & Updates' app, with some settings moving elsewhere as Canonical simplifies the distro's configuration tools.