News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Free open-source software updates and Linux news
Many free open-source apps/projects got updates in past week. They include KDE Plasma 6.3 features panel clone and pixel perfect KWin zoom, GNOME 48 Beta with screen time and HDR settings support.
There are as well GIMP 3.0 RC3 with official AppImage support, Go lang 1.24 features full generic type aliases, and TLP 1.8.0 that supports charging threshold for DELL, Chromebook, and Framework laptops.
Wallpaper competition for the upcoming Ubuntu 25.04, Plucky Puffin, is open! Top 6 winner images will be shipped in the official iso image!
This time submissions are separated into 3 categories: Mascot Theme, Digital / Abstract Art, and Photography. Top 2 voted images in each category will appear in the background settings page in Ubuntu 25.04.
image from https://discourse.ubuntu.com/
KDE announced the first maintenance update for Plasma 6.3 just a week after it was originally released.
As you may know, Plasma 6.3 introduced new feature to resize or move the area of drawing tablet. However, some Linux Distributions are NOT supported due to outdated libinput library. The new release updated the UI to better handle the un-supported cases.
HandBrake video transcoder released new 1.9.1 version a few days ago. Here are the changes and native .deb packages for Ubuntu users.
The new HandBrake 1.9.1 contains primarily bug-fixes. It fixed FFV1 pixel format selection when an hardware decoder is used, causing incorrect bit depth output.
GNOME 48, the Linux desktop environment that will be default for Ubuntu 25.04 & Fedora 42 Workstation, now is in Beta stage.
The release team announced it just a few hours ago in GNOME Discourse, along with an installer image for testing and porting extensions.
GNOME added experimental HDR support since version 44. It’s a technology allowing to transmit high dynamic range videos and images to compatible displays. In GNOME 48, GCC (GNOME Control Center) finally has a toggle option in the Display setting page to turn on/off this feature.
TLP, the laptop battery power saving tool, released new 1.8.0 version few days ago!
The new release add battery charge threshold support for new laptops, including Chromebooks, DELL, and Framework laptops.
With Linux Kernel 6.12 or later, TLP 1.8.0 finally supports for setting start and stop battery charge threshold for DELL laptops.
image from pixabay.com
After 6 months of development, Go language announced new 1.24 release few days ago on Tuesday.
Go 1.24 now fully supports generic type aliases. Type aliases, a concept introduced in Go 1.9, allows to create a new name for an existing type without creating a new type. Previously, it didn’t support type parameters. But this changed in Go 1.24. See more about generic type aliases.
Darktable, the popular free open-source photography software and RAW developer, released new 5.0.1 version one day ago.
This is a maintenance release that includes various bug-fixes, some performance improvements, and updates camera devices and profiles support.
GIMP image editor announced the third release candidate for the next major 3.0 series yesterday, with dozens of bug-fixes, requests, and translation updates.
The new release fixed crash and stability issues when working on Wayland. The new GIMP running with most recent GTK 3.24.48 fixed freeze with certain actions on KDE/Wayland, and crash when dragging layers and text glitches in certain widgets with Right-To-Left languages.
KDE Plasma announced new major 6.3 release today. See what’s new in the release of this popular Linux Desktop Environment.
First, the new Plasma 6.3 introduced “Clone Panel” option in panel configuration dialog, allowing to quickly make a copy of current panel with same settings and applets, and place in one of other 3 screen edges.
Plasma 6.3 Clone Panel
