Kdenlive video editor released new 24.02.0 version this Monday!
The new release now takes use of Qt6 and KDE Frameworks 6 for its user interface. The port gets overall experience and better Wayland support for Linux users. And, it now runs natively on DirectX, Metal, and Vulkan respectively on Windows, MacOS, and Linux with substantial performance boost.
However, due to this change, the developer team discontinued supporting for the official PPA that contains the native .deb package for Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Now, it supports only AppImage & Flatpak for Linux.
Other downsides due to switched to Qt6 and KDE Frameworks 6 include:
Themes and icons not applied properly in Windows and Linux AppImage.
Temporarily removed audio recording feature.
Text not properly displays in clips in the timeline for Linux Wayland.
Linus Torvalds announced Linux 6.8 stable as the latest Kernel series this Sunday.
For Intel, the new kernel now includes the IAA (Intel Analytics Accelerators) crypto compression kernel driver, Qualcomm WCD939X USB subsystem Altmode Mux driver. It added support for QAT 420xx devices, and Thunderbold support for next 16th gen CPUs, QAT 420xx devices. The intel_idle driver now supports ntel Meteor Lake 14th Gen CPUs. And, the issue that the maximum frequency of Core Ultra mobile processors is 100MHz less has been fixed.
AMD PMC (Power Management Controller) driver has been updated with next-gen Zen 5 CPUs support. And, the kernel now supports AMD MicroBlaze V soft-core RISC-V processor.
Kernel 6.8 also added many new devices support. They include Samsung Exynos Auto v920, Google GS101 (Tensor G1), MediaTek MT8188, Qualcomm SM8650 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3), Qualcomm X1E80100 (Snapdragon X Elite), and Unisoc UMS9620 (Tanggula 7), as well as new Lenovo, ASUS, and Acer Chromebooks with Mediatek MT8183 SoC.
For gaming, the kernel adds driver for Adafruit Seesaw gamepad, and supports Lenovo Legion Go and Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) controllers, as well as new gaming handhelds, such as Anbernic RG351V, Powkiddy RK2023, and Powkiddy X55.
Other changes in Linux Kernel 6.8 include:
Initial Rust support for LoongArch CPU.
11% higher s390 (IBM Z) system call entry performance
KeePassXC password manager announced the new 2.7.7 release this Sunday! Here are the new features and how to install instruction for Ubuntu.
The new KeePassXC 2.7.7 features official support for Passkeys. It’s a type of login credential, that provides a faster, easier, and more secure ways to login to websites and services without having to enter a password.
For Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop, there’s an extension to help you focus on reading on the screen.
It’s Reading Strip, a free and open-source app written in JavaScript. With it, a horizontal (and/or vertical) strip will be displayed and follow around your mouse cursor.
By settings its background color and opacity, it can highlight the sentence to help focus on reading for people affected by dyslexia.
It also supports focus strip mode, that hides (blurs) the previous and next ones on screen. Which, is great for helping children focus on reading very well.
ReadingStrip Focus mode
How to Install Reading Strip
As mentioned above, reading strip is available as an extension for GNOME Desktop. It so far supports for GNOME from version 3.36 to 44. Sadly, GNOME 45 is not supported due to bug. Meaning it works for all current Ubuntu LTS (20.04 and 22.04), Fedora 37/38, Debian 12, RHEL 9.
For Ubuntu 22.04, first search for and install “Gnome Shell Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+
Then, launch the tool and use it to search & install “Reading Strip” under Browse tab.
For Ubuntu 20.04 and other Linux with GNOME, just open web browser and go to the extension page via the link button below:
Install the browser extension if it prompts, refresh, and finally use the ON/OFF switch that page to install the GNOME Shell Extension.
NOTE: Debian and Ubuntu may also needs to open terminal and run command sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell to install the agent package first.
Configure & Use Reading Strip
After properly installed the extension, an indicator applet should appear in top-right system tray area.
By clicking on the applet icon or using Ctrl + Super (Windows Logo) + Space key combination can toggle on/off the feature.
To change the strip size, background opacity, color, and/or enable focus mode, just install either Gnome Extensions or Extension Manager from either Ubuntu Software or Gnome Software.
Then, click on setting for the Reading Strip extension and do the changes as you want.
After almost 2 years, Cozy audiobook player, finally announced new 1.3.0 release days ago.
Cozy is a free open-source application for Linux, allows to listen to your DRM free mp3, m4b, m4a (aac, ALAC, …), flac, ogg and wav audio books.
The new release ported the UI to GTK4 plus LibAdwaita. It now looks more native, well integrated in Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux with recent GNOME Desktop, and automatically switch to dark mode when system switched to dark style.
Other changes include:
Improved mobile support
Smaller visual refinements to match the state of the art of GNOME apps
Dozens of bug fixes and performance improvements
Significant cleanup and improvements to the codebase
As always, updated translations thanks to all translators!
HexChat, the popular free open-source IRC chat client, discontinued!
HexChat is a IRC chat client forked from XChat. It’s a GTK app written in mostly C programming language. Features include customizable interface, Windows and Linux support, scripting support with Lua, Python, and Perl, multi-network with auto-connect, join, and identify, and more.
By announcing the 1.6.2 release today, the developer TingPing finally discontinued working on the project, after almost 12 years of development.
“This will be the last release I make of HexChat. The project has largely been unmaintained for years now and nobody else stepped up to do that work.“
Zorin OS, the popular Ubuntu based Linux Distribution, announced v17.1 this Thursday!
Like Linux Mint, Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu LTS. The latest 17.x release series is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, but features GNOME 43 desktop with custom layout.
It provides an elegant and user friendly desktop appearance targets to users who are switching from Microsoft Windows. And, features 3 editions: Pro (cost $48), Core, and Education.
For users who prefer native .deb package, LibreOffice 24.2 is finally available to install via Ubuntu PPA!
LibreOffice is the default office suite for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and many other Linux. And, the latest so far is LibreOffice 24.2.x release series that was released a month ago.
The office suite provides official packages for Linux through Flatpak, Snap, Deb/RPM, and AppImage.
However, for Ubuntu users who prefer the native Deb package format, the LibreOffice Fresh PPA maintained by Ubuntu Team members, is a better choice.
“OTOH, it is _way_ _better_ to use packages from this PPA than using the *.deb files that The Document Foundation provides upstream, which are intentionally build against a very old baseline for maximum compatibility. So, _if_ you want to be on the bleeding edge, do it here, not with upstream *.debs.”
And now the PPA finally is updated that contains LibreOffice 24.2.1 for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.10, and Ubuntu 24.04. While the Ubuntu 20.04 build is stuck at the last v7.6.5.
Pithos, the free open-source client for Pandora Radio, released new 1.6.2 version a few days ago.
Pithos is a native app for Linux desktop, allowing to listen to free music through Pandora music streaming service. It’s much more lightweight than the Pandora.com web client, and well integrated with Linux desktop that features media keys, notifications, and the sound menu.
The Pithos 1.6.2 version was released a few days ago with only few bug-fixes. They include:
Fix issue where playback would stop after a few songs
After 3 alpha and 3 beta releases, Kodi media center 21, finally announced its first RC release this Thursday.
Kodi 21 is the next major release that’s still in development. The release features upstream FFmpeg 6.0, adds support for NFSv4, support M3U8 playlist files, AVIF images, HDR10 for Android.
The developer team asks users to try out the new development release and report issues to help to make it better. And, in the current RC1 release, changes include:
Allow users to set a subtitle save path
Fix that audiobooks showing their last chapter with no duration.
For Linux, allow Pipewire to properly identify HDMI for passthrough usage.
Implement Hotkeycontroller for media keys on macOS
Some color accuracy changes for 10bit SDR/HDR color mapping on Windows.
Allows subtitles to be tonemapped to avoid extreme brightness for HDR playback on Android.
