News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
HandBrake video transcoder announced a new update for the 1.7.x release a few days ago.
This release includes only bug-fixes and minor improvements. They include:
power-profiles-daemon, the power mode settings backend in Gnome, released 0.20 today!
The new release added amdgpu panel power savings which uses dedicated hardware in systems with integrated Radeon graphics to decrease panel power consumption when the system is on battery.
This activates the DRM connector attribute panel_power_savings which takes a range from 0 to 4 to indicate how aggressively to enable panel power savings.
GNOME Power Mode settings page
Wine, the popular free open-source software for running Windows apps & games on Linux, macOS, & BSD, announced a new development 9.2 release!
The new release updated Mono engine to version 9.0.0, included a number of system tray fixes, and exception handling improvements on ARM platforms.
There are as well fixes to a total of 15 bugs, including
Wallpaper Contest for the next Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Noble Numbat, is open! Top 8 winner images will be shipped in the iso image.
A bit different to the previous contests, this time the submissions are separated into 4 categories: Mascot Theme, Digital / Abstract Art, Nature, and Other. Each category will have 2 winners, and finally 8 mixed images will be made as optional wallpapers in Ubuntu 24.04 out-of-the-box.
The AI generated artwork is NOT allowed! Because there are active legal debates on the ownership of AI generated artwork and whether it can be copyrighted or not. And, many popular AI generation tools use a license that does not align with those for the contest.
image via meetdilip
Like Firefox, Thunderbird email client in Ubuntu is going to be replaced as a Snap app runs in sandbox.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is working on porting core apps to Snap package format in recent years. Firefox, Chromium (in system repository), and Ubuntu Software (App Center) are now Snap apps in current Ubuntu releases. Next will be probably Thunderbird!
Canonical has built Thunderbird as Snap package for a period of time. It’s a re-pack of the upstream binary, only available for amd64 (Intel/AMD CPUs), as alternative package for the pre-installed .deb package.
Just one day ago, the Ubuntu Desktop team announced that the Thunderbird Beta Snap now is building from source instead of repacking. Meaning it can be built on other CPU architecture types, such as arm64 and armhf.
And, the Thunderbird Snap built from source aims to be default in next Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
We are aiming at using the snap built from source instead of the deb in Noble. (the reasons are the same than for Firefox, making it easier to roll new versions on older supported series and reducing the maintenance efforts).
Meaning in future, there will be (mostly) NO .deb package for the Thunderbird email client in Ubuntu repository!
Thankfully, those who prefer the classic .deb to Snap can use the Mozilla Team PPA instead, which is maintained by members from Ubuntu Developer Team.
For more about the Thunderbird package format transition, see it in discourse.ubuntu.com.
The Arduino team announced the 2.3 release of the Arduino IDE this Wednesday.
Since v2.3, the debug feature is now stable and fully incorporated into the IDE! It’s now based on a standard framework, and enabled for all the Arduino boards based on the Mbed™ core, include GIGA R1 WiFi, Portenta H7, Opta, Nano BLE and Nano RP2040 Connect.
Maintainers of Arduino cores can now add debugging for any board. And, the upcoming release of the Arduino-ESP32 core will support the new debug framework!
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Go programming language announced the new 1.23 release on 13 August, 2024! Here’s the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu & other Linux.
func(func() bool), func(func(K) bool), func(func(K, V) bool).go env -changed, go mod tidy -diff flagsgo list -m -json command now includes new Sum and GoModSum fieldsgo vet subcommand now reports symbols that are too new for the intended Go version.iter, structs, unique packages.See the announcement for more changes in Go 1.23.
Deepin, the popular Linux Distribution from China, announced the last Beta of version 23 this Friday!
Deepin is a Linux Distro so far based on Debian ‘Stable’ branch, features Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) that is built on Qt toolkit. It’s a free open-source system that has a very attractive desktop appearance.
Start in version 23, which is still in development, Deepin is going to be independent Linux Distribution. In the beta, it’s no longer depends on Debian or any other Linux, but still uses .deb and apt for installing and managing software packages.
The installer for Deepin 23 Beta3 is improved to be adaptive for different screen resolutions, including 768P, 1080P, 2K, and 4K. It added drivers support for certain i386 devices support, though without 32-bit download at the moment, due to human and resource limit.
The release introduced UOS AI plugin, available in system tray. User can communicate with it using text or voice. And, it can answer user questions and generate images based on user description.
OnlyOffice, the popular free open-source office suite, announced new 8.0 release this Friday.
The release introduced one of the most awaited features, RTL support. It now supports bidirectional text in documents and presentations. But, RTL input is partially available with some limitations, since it’s still in Beta. In the settings page, user can enabled RTL interface with a checkbox, then restart the app to apply.
The new 8.0 release also added local interface themes support. Besides the built-in light, classic light, dark, and contrast dark, there’s now a “Add local theme” option to apply a custom interface using local JSON file.
LibreOffice, the popular free open-source office suite, announced a new major release this Wednesday.
It’s LibreOffice 24.2.0, the first release introduced the new calendar-based numbering scheme (YY.M). Meaning it’s release in February, 2024.
The release added better support for Qt-based UI variants. It automatically switches to dark app color and dark icon theme for KDE Plasma when the desktop is set to dark style.
