Canonical has released Ubuntu Core 26, a new long-term support (LTS) version of its immutable, snap-based OS. Among the changes Ubuntu Core 26 brings is smaller over-the-air updates, with download sizes reduced by up to 90% for most snaps thanks to a new snap-delta format. Updates to the Core base snaps specifically drop from 16 MB to 1.5 MB. Installation times are faster as the initramfs-based installer skips redundant reboots during provisioning. Core 26 also enables live kernel patching on ARM64 devices so that critical and high vulnerability kernel security fixes are applied without the need for a device reboot. […]
The new tab page has a (slightly) new look and a new name in Firefox 151, the latest update to Mozilla’s famous open-source web browser that rolls out this week (May 18). Now called Firefox Home, the new tab page has a “new look and feel”, to quote Mozilla. It’s not quite that dramatic, but the rounded search bar (no longer sticky on scroll) draws from the upcoming Nova redesign. You can now also choose to show more shortcuts, up to a maximum of 4 rows. Stories stay put, but the button to follow a topic moves to the left-hand […]
Canonical has shared a new Ubuntu Concept image for the CIX P1, an Armv9 SoC powering single-board computers like the Radxa Orion O6 and Orange Pi 6 Plus. The image is based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and ships with a Linux 7.0 kernel from CIX’s open-source GitHub tree using only open-source drivers. A set of patches sits on top of the mainline kernel, but the goal for them to be upstreamed too. Canonical is also targeting ACPI rather than Device Tree in the CIX P1 concept image. This is the same approach taken with its Snapdragon X Elite builds and […]
A new version of Broadcom’s free virtualisation software VMware Workstation Pro is out with been support Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. VMware Workstation Pro 26H1, along macOS counterpart VMware Fusion Pro, both support the latest long-term support version of Ubuntu as host OS (what the software runs on) and a guest OS (a virtual machine inside the software). Fedora 43 and 44, SUSE Linux Enterprise 16 and openSUS 16.0 are similarly supported as both guest and host OSes, while FreeBSD 15.0 is supported as a guest only. Windows builds of VMware Workstation Pro 26H1 see “all binaries, libraries, installer components, and related […]
If you’ve been itching to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS from Ubuntu 25.10, good news: the upgrade path has finally been enabled, as of 14 May, 2026. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS released over a month ago, with GNOME 50, Linux 7.0 and new default apps. Snap app and web searching features were added to the overview, and you can enable Ubuntu Pro in the Security Center. Plus, the ‘Resolute Raccoon’ brought a fresh set of folder icons, turned on password feedback for sudo commands and provides easy access to NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm, since both are now an apt install […]
Open-source cleaning tool BleachBit has gained a text-based user interface (TUI) as an optional alternative to its standard graphical frontend. Unlike BleachBit’s existing CLI, which is intended for non-interactive use in scripts, the TUI is fully interactive, you navigate the interface with your keyboard (there’s limited mouse support) to select, preview and clean out cruft. The BleachBit TUI caters to use cases the GUI doesn’t, be that headless Linux servers managed remotely or being available on lightweight desktop systems where adding the overheard of GTK dependencies isn’t wanted. Currently in alpha, the new TUI runs on the same backend as […]
KDE has announced it’s getting a €1.28 million grant from the Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) to help improve the Plasma desktop, KDE Linux and the communication frameworks used by both. The German government-backed fund, which sees its work as “strategic investments in the digital infrastructure of our economy and society”, will disburse €1,285,200 ($1,512,680) to KDE across 2026 and 2027. Like all grants the fund provides, the money is earmarked for a specific set of pre-approved projects. KDE developers can’t redirect cash toward the latest feature request gathering upvotes on r/KDE. Work the money will fund includes improving the Plasma […]
If you recently downloaded the Cemu emulator for Linux from the project’s GitHub, be aware: it may have added malware to your system. The team behind the Wii U emulator discovered that both the official AppImage and its Ubuntu ZIP assets for the Cemu 2.6 release available to download from Github were “compromised” – only those builds; Flatpak was not affected, nor installers for Windows and macOS. To wit: if you downloaded Cemu 2.6 between 6 May, 2026 and 12 May from the project’s GitHub page or, as importantly, a third-party launcher which downloads a build from there instead, and […]
If your HEIC photos show a “Could not load image” error in Ubuntu 26.04’s Image Viewer, you’re not alone – it’s an intentional breakage, albeit one that’s easy to fix. HEIC files are a variant of HEIF which use H.265/HEVC compression. If you own an iPhone or a newer Android device, the stock camera app uses this format by default. But Ubuntu 26.04 LTS longer preinstalls a decoder library for HEIC (though more accurately, it’s tweaked dependency chains to ensure one is no longer pulled in). When you connect your smartphone to a computer running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS to browse […]
If you haven’t tried Ubuntu’s ‘Permission Prompting’ feature for a while, there’s more reason to do so in the latest release. Canonical’s Oliver Calder has shared an update on recent improvements to the security feature, which sets out to “empower users” by letting them decide what software can access on the rest of the system at runtime rather than retrospectively. Android or iOS show similar prompts, with screen modals asking if you want to “allow Acme App to access the camera” and similar. Ubuntu’s app prompting effort is still an ‘experimental’ feature in 26.04 LTS, but is now said to […]
If Canonical hadn’t burned through cash and goodwill during its smartphone detour in the mid-2010s, Ubuntu would likely still ship with the Unity desktop today – albeit in an evolved form. What would that form actually look like? Well, you don’t have to shut your eyes and imagine, thanks to Ubuntu community member Muqtxdir, who’s experiment in “re-building ubuntu’s unity shell in a wayfire session through gtk4-layer-shell and libadwaita widgetry” (sic) gives us a sideways glimpse. Muqtxdir, who help maintain and develop Ubuntu’s Yaru theme and contributes to the immutable Vanilla OS Linux distribution, recently shared a video of his […]
A new beta build of Orion for Linux is available, with the v0.3 update described by its makers, the search company Kagi, as being “ready for broader, real-world use and feedback”. Orion for Linux is a native GTK4/libadwaita web browser powered by WebKitGTK. It launched an alpha build in early 2026 followed by early beta in March. The goal is to offer feature parity with the macOS version (platform-specific features notwithstanding). Kagi say Orion for Linux has “evolved into a much more capable browser” in the months since the last beta, with core browsing features like tab management, a password […]
gThumb, the open-source image viewer and organiser, has been rewritten in Vala and ported to GTK4/libadwaita – and compared to the old UI, it’s barely recognisable. An alpha build of gThumb 4.0 is available for testing, which also brings support for WEBP and PNG animations, allows you to save images in the JXL format and includes a censor filter to pixelate or blur out portions of an image, should you have need. But it’s the visual changes that mark this update out. Sure, any port from GTK3 to GTK4 will add a visage of modernity, but it’s not a “automatically […]
If you’re having trouble accessing the Ubuntu website, the Snap store or Launchpad then you’re not alone: Canonical’s websites are currently facing a “sustained, cross-border” DDoS attack. The company says it is “working to address” the attack and will provide more details shortly. Some websites and services have been affected for as long as 14 hours (at the time of writing). The Ubuntu APT repos are not offline, as they’re mirrored across multiple locations, countries and servers, although the main archive.ubuntu.com is offline (at the time of writing). It’s still possible to download OS ISO images too, due to distributed […]
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 […]
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