A stack of updates to a slate of popular Linux software has emerged over the past week or two.
Rather than wrap each app in its own individual update post we’ve grouped the lot together. This cuts out the cruft to give you what you want: the details on what’s changed and where you can get the updates.
And kicking off this news stew is a long-time favourite…
GNOME Pie 0.6.7
Novel app launcher GNOME Pie is not to everyone’s taste but is serves as a shining example of what makes Linux so great: exploration of new ideas.
The latest release of slick circular app launcher bakes in a brand new, thoroughly experimental feature: a clipboard.
The new clipboard slice can remember a configurable history of copied items. When triggered it then lets you filter through to select an item and have it ready to paste.
When the maximum history length is reached the slice will discard older clipboard entries to make way for new ones.
Clipboard slices only supports text (including URLs) and images at present.
Other new features in GNOME Pie 0.6.7 include:
- Activate slices using the return/enter key
- Load themes are stored in a folder inside an archive
- Delete imported themes
- Window List Pie part of default configuration
GNOME Pie 0.6.7 is available to install on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, 15.04 and 15.10 (and derivatives) direct from the official testing PPA.
Laptop Mode Tools 1.68.1
As an indispensable utility for Linux laptop users Laptop Mode Tools easily squeaked on to our list of “11 Useful Tools To Supercharge Linux“.
The latest point release is shy on whizz, bang and woompa but that’s fine. Unlike desktop apps even minor sounding changes have have an impact.
“The last release (v1.68) was mostly about systemd integration, and so is this release. There were a couple of bugs reported, and most of them fixed, with this release. All downstreams are requested to upgrade,” writes project lead Ritesh Raj Sarraf of this release.
A reminder that this utility conflicts with TLP (an app with a similar purpose, but less accessible to regular users). If you have TLP installed do not install Laptop Mode Tools.
The full release notes are rather technical, but if you’re interested you can see them below.
Opera 33 Beta
A minor feature heading to the Opera web browser but of note to Linux users: the latest beta adds support for displaying (certain) notifications using libnotify, the Ubuntu default notifications system.
Stable version uses of Opera can manually enable the flag through opera://flags.
SMPlayer 15.9
SMPlayer is a popular Qt-based video app based on MPlayer. For the latest major release, version 15.9, the app introduces support for using MPlayer fork MPV as the default playback engine.
Opting to use MPV – which has to be installed separately to SMPlayer, a community PPA makes this easy on Ubuntu – adds a wealth of additional features to the app. So if you’ve need for dual subtitles, want to take better screenshots, use single-frame stepping, native support for VAAPI, VDU and VDPAU, etc, you can.
Other notable changes in SMPlayer 15.9 include:
- 3D Stereo Format support
- Support for using MPV as playback engine
- New ‘h2o’ theme
- Proxy support ossibility to set a proxy.
- Pressing ‘l’ key shows current playback time, total time and percentage
- MPRIS2 support
SMPlayer 15.9 can be installed on Ubuntu using the official SMPlayer PPA.
WINE 1.7.52
WINE, the not-an-emulator for running select Windows software on Linux, is an acquired taste. But love it or hate it there’s no getting away from the fact that lots of people use it.
A new WINE release is ready for public consumption.
WINE 1.7.52 introduces support for Unicode 8.0.0; adds new Direct3D 11 interfaces, ‘a few more functions’ in the C++ runtime, and partly implements the Web Service DLL.
Nothing dramatic, but all changes that should help improve the performance and reliability of software that can be run on Wine.
For more details, including installation instructions, visit the official WINE HQ website.
Corebird 1.1
The awesome native Linux Twitter app Corebird has a new release to sing about.
Corebird 1.1 adds support for recent changes in the Twitter feature set. It now supports ‘quote retweet’ feature and direct messages over 140 characters.
If you dislike seeing your Twitter stream peppered with media links and excessive hashtags Corebird 1.1 lets you disable them. Dive in to Corebird > Settings > Tweets to turn these off.
Snippets is a handy new feature that lets you save commonly used phrases, link, ASCII emoji and other text-based tidbits for easy re-use in future tweets.
Among the new changes and fixes is:
- Support for Quote Retweet
- Direct Messages: 140 character limit removed
- New ‘Snippets’ feature that lets you save/insert phrases, etc
- New settings to hide media links and trailing hashtags
- Profiles now display followers/following
Corebird 1.1 requires GTK 3.16 or later. This is available on Ubuntu 15.04 with the GNOME 3 PPA added or Ubuntu 15.10, currently in Beta.
As ever there is no official PPA for Ubuntu users but several unofficial community-run PPAs do exist.
inb4theranterz
I know a few readers will be scrolling on down to complain that we missed x and y. It sucks, but we can’t keep tabs on every application release out there. So, if an app you love has a new release try and let us know about it using the Tip Form linked at the top of the page.
If that sounds like too much hassle you might also considering pinging the dev of your fave app or project to ask them to keep us in the loop. Because despite being one of the most visited Linux-based websites very few projects or app developers keep us in the loop.
And we’re only as good as our sources are.